The Nevada football season is just 19 days away from opening with the Wolf Pack playing at No. 2 Penn State on Aug. 30 (the Nittany Lions were only five vote points shy of being voted preseason No. 1 team in the AP poll, which was released Monday morning). The Wolf Pack athletic season, however, starts Thursday when women’s soccer opens its year at Arizona State. That makes this the last Monday Mailbag before the 2025-26 Nevada athletics season starts. Thanks, as always, for the questions.

If we’re looking at this century only (the 25 seasons since 2000), I would take Nevada over Utah State. Here’s the revenue-sport breakdown:

Men’s basketball

Nevada: 514-303; 12 conference titles; nine NCAA Tournaments (6-9)

Utah State: 579-250; 15 conference titles; 12 NCAA Tournaments (2-12)

Football

Nevada: 149-161 overall, 98-100 in league; two conference titles; 14 bowls (5-9)

Utah State: 134-169 overall, 88-84 in league; two conference titles; 11 bowls (5-6)

It’s very close, but I’d take Nevada over Utah State because it has two Sweet 16 berths to the Aggies’ zero in men’s basketball and one top-15 football finish to the Aggies’ zero. But Utah State has been better in the revenue sports since both became members of the MW (Nevada in 2012 and Utah State in 2013). in that period, both have won four conference basketball titles, but Utah State has a six to five edge in NCAA Tournament berths (I’m counting 2020 for the Aggies since they got an automatic berth that season before the tournament was canceled) plus a MW football title in two championship game appearances (Nevada football has never reached a MW title game). Men’s basketball is a tie, but Utah State gets the edge thanks to football.

These are the MW’s two most similar programs in terms of revenue-sports success since 2000, with both also having a star NFL quarterback during this century, too (Colin Kaepernick at Nevada; Jordan Love for Utah State).

That’s the whole point of facility improvements, which are done to increase revenue and improve the product. However, that doesn’t always happen. Since San Diego State opened a new football stadium in 2022, it is 14-23 in three seasons. That’s almost the same number of losses as the Aztecs have combined in the seven season prior (24 losses against 65 wins). Colorado State opened a new stadium in 2017 and is 34-56 in the eight seasons since then. It was 45-56 in the the eight seasons prior to the stadium opening, so the Rams’ product got worse as did San Diego State’s team after the new stadium opened. This is just two examples, but they’re the two most recent in the Mountain West and didn’t spur winning. I guess you could include UNLV playing at the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, which has coincided with program improvement, but only after a coaching change as the team was 7-23 in its first three seasons in Allegiant before firing Marcus Arroyo and hiring Barry Odom, who then turned the team around.

If you want to go further back, San Diego State men’s basketball opened Viejas Arena in 1997-98 and turned into a West Coast power shortly after, but that was more a result of hiring Steve Fisher than opening a new arena. The Aztecs went 36-74 in its first four seasons after opening Viejas, so it’s not like the arena immediately sparked improvement. Nevada men’s basketball getting to play in GSR Arena and building the on-campus Fieldhouse providing Nevada football an indoor practice facility certainly helps recruiting, but it doesn’t mean automatic improvement. That comes down to coaching, and in this day and age, NIL and revenue-share money to recruit and retain players. One thing it does do is add more pressure on coaches to win because now they can’t use facilities as an excuse for a lack of success.

Best-case scenario is 8-4 with the worst-case scenario 2-10. I’m leaning toward splitting it down the middle and going 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the Mountain West. For Nevada to hit that 8-4 ceiling, Chubba Purdy would have to make the All-MW team at quarterback, a position with large error bars, meaning a high variance of potential results. I could see Purdy staying healthy and blowing up. I could also seeing him getting hurt of struggling due to a lack of game reps earlier in this career.

Here are my confidence rankings for each Nevada position group entering the season:

Quarterbacks — Chubba Purdy has plenty of potential, but there are injury concerns (5/10)

Running backs — There’s not a lot of proven talent, but I’m firmly on the Herschel Turner Jr. train (8/10)

Wide receivers — Marcus Bellon is a potential All-MW player, but the transfer additions don’t have the size of last year’s adds (5/10)

Tight ends — The top-two (Jace Henry, Jett Carpenter) are solid but there’s not much depth behind them (7/10)

Offensive line — I like that Nevada added a lot of starting experience from the FCS level to fill the gaps (6/10)

Interior defensive line — There’s not a game-wrecker here but two key returners are back and two FBS transfer add depth (5/10)

Edge rushers — Jonathan Maldonado needs to have a big season for this group opposite Dylan Labarbera (6/10)

Middle linebackers — There are five capable players here, but does Nevada have an All-MW talent at the position? (5/10)

Cornerbacks — Nevada added several FBS/FCS transfer with varying levels of experience, and there’s probably more potential here than last year’s team, which played well at cornerback (6/10)

Safeties — While this position is a complete rebuild, Murvin Kenion III and Bishop Turner are a good starting point; the third starter might be an issue (7/10)

Kicker/punter — Nevada’s special teams were bad last season and Nevada’s projected starter at kicker (Keaton Emmett) and punter (Bailey Ettridge) haven’t played in the FBS (3/10)

Nevada plays Boise State in its eighth game of the season after a fairly soft start to the campaign with winnable games against Sac State, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, San Diego State and New Mexico before the matchup with the Broncos (Nevada also plays Penn State and Fresno State in that stretch). The Wolf Pack could be 5-2 entering that game, although 4-3 or 3-4 seems more likely.

Mackay Stadium’s capacity is 27,000, so 90 percent of that is 24,300 fans. The Nevada-Boise State games in Reno have surpassed that mark in five of their last seven matchups, although the two times the Wolf Pack-Broncos game fell short of that mark are the two more recent games, in 2022 (14,960 fans) and 2019 (21,431 fans). You can pretty much throw out that 2022 game as Nevada was 2-8 and it was 33 degrees with heavy softball for the 7:37 p.m. kickoff time Nov. 12. Given this is potentially the last Nevada-Boise State matchup with the Broncos headed to the Pac-12 in 2026, you should see a good amount of Boise State fans in attendance, although it is a Friday night kickoff at 7 p.m. (weather should be pretty good since it’s Oct. 24).

If Nevada is in the 4-3/3-4 range, I’ll give it a 65 percent chance of hitting 90 percent capacity. That goes up to 80 percent if Nevada is 5-2 or better. The Friday slot will hurt attendance. Worth noting Nevada has hit 90 percent capacity for a football game just once in the last three seasons, drawing 24,578 fans for the 2023 game against UNLV, a 45-27 loss.

Fun question, but it has to be Nevada men’s basketball’s 3-point shooting. Even a terrible 3-point shooting team makes 30 percent from beyond the arc, and I don’t see Nevada football averaging 30 points per game this season after tallying 23.1 points per game last season and 17.3 ppg the year before. I’d guess Nevada football averages 25 points per game and Wolf Pack men’s basketball shoot 34 percent from three in 2025-26. That’s a sizable gap.

Yes, if Nevada football goes 2-10 in 2025, I imagine there will be substantial coaching changes. Head coach Jeff Choate would surely get a third season, but his staff would need to be shuffled, and not like last offseason where coaches were just moved from one position to another. Coaches would be replaced.

I’m not a fan of scheduling two road games against Power 4 opponents in the same season considering the Wolf Pack is 3-29 all-time on the road against power-conference foes since joining the FBS in 1992 (Nevada is 9-40 overall against such opponents). You’re basically stapling two losses to your season, meaning you need to 6-4 in your other 10 games just to make a bowl. I don’t mind one “buy” game on the road to help fund the department. Two is one too many. The years you mention featuring two Power 4 opponents in the same season are 2028 (at Utah and at SMU) and 2029 (at Nebraska and at Kansas), but both of those have one game with a low payout — just $150,000 to play at SMU in 2028 and $300,000 to play at Kansas in 2029. Those are a result of home-and-home series where Nevada already played SMU and Kansas at home in exchange for tougher future schedules.

As for the Nebraska addition in 2029, I was a little surprised to see that scheduled (the contract was signed in July) because head coach Jeff Choate said at MW media days he wanted to keep the road “buy” games in the Pacific or Mountain time zone, which was accomplished with the 2028 addition of Utah but not the 2029 addition of Nebraska, which is in the Central time zone. But $1.6 million, which Nevada will get from Nebraska, is hard to turn down.

Nevada will play Nebraska on Sept. 1, 2029, which is the season opener for both schools, so I will guess a 0-0 Wolf Pack team will march into Memorial Stadium for that game.

I highlighted one athlete per Nevada Wolf Pack sport here, but a couple more Wolf Pack athletes who could break out this fall include Murvin Kenion III (football), Herschel Turner Jr. (football), Jonathan Maldonado (football), Marlene Foerster (women’s tennis), Nico Recoura (men’s tennis), Naima Castro (soccer) and Meekness Dogonyaro (women’s track and field).

Cameron Ward never played at Mackay Stadium. He left Incarnate Word after the 2021 season, and that team played in Reno in 2022 with his successor, Lindsey Scott Jr., passing for 406 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 32 more yards in a Cardinals 55-41 win. I put together the list of best opposing players to play at Mackay and Lawlor during a 2015 column. Here was that list with some players who have appeared at those locations since then.

For Mackay Stadium: 1. Ladainian Tomlinson, TCU; 2. Darrel Green, Texas A&M-Kingsville; 3. Michael Strahan, Texas Southern; 4. Logan Mankins, Fresno State; 5. Henry Ellard, Fresno State; 6. Joey Porter, Colorado State; 7. Ryan Clady, Boise State; 8. Jeff Garcia, San Jose State; 9. Kenan McCardell, UNLV; 10. Mark Schlereth, Idaho

You can now add Derek/David Carr (Fresno State), Davante Adams (Fresno State), Michael Crabtree (Texas Tech), Bobby Wagner (Utah State), Keenan Allen (Cal), TJ Houshmandzadeh (Oregon State) and Ashton Jeanty (Boise State).

For Lawlor Events Center: 1. Larry Johnson, UNLV; 2. Shawn Marion, UNLV; 3. Paul George, Fresno State; 4. Hank Gathers, Loyola Marymount; 5. Ty Lawson, North Carolina; 6. Armen Gilliam, UNLV; 7. Paul Millsap, Louisiana Tech; 8. Stacey Augmon, UNLV; 9. Rick Fox, North Carolina; 10. Ryan Anderson, Cal

You can also include Danny Green (North Carolina), Tyron Lue (Nebraska), Greg Anthony (UNLV), Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina) and Rafer Alston (Fresno State).

A Mountain West or Pac-12 school is never winning the college football championship and might not even be eligible for such a title when the Power 3 — see ya ACC — breaks off and forms a Super League in a few years. But I’ll play your game. You’re basically asking for the odds an ACC school wins the national title in the next two years (3 percent), five years (10 percent) or 10 years (20 percent). Clemson is still pretty good, after all. I’m not counting partial member Notre Dame as an ACC, either.

A bowl regular in the new division between the current Power 4 and the FCS.

I think it will take an injury to Chubba Purdy for AJ Bianco to get the starting position. And if that did happen, I imagine Bianco would have a short leash before Nevada went to true freshman Carter Jones. To quote The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, that’s just the impression that I get after discussing Nevada’s quarterbacks with Choate since he took over the job.

Not that I’m aware of, but it did use the silver flake, a color the school trademarked, in 2022 in the first year post-Jay Norvell. I didn’t see the silver flake last season. Nevada wore silver helmets last season, but it wasn’t the flake variant. I don’t think the current staff led by Jeff Choate wants anything to do with the Norvell-era Wolf Pack.

Three iconic sounds here, but the Fremont Cannon blast always scares me because it comes out of nowhere whereas the Wild Island wave pool horn elicits excitement, so that takes the top spot. I’ll put the NSN Tonight intro song in between. I’ve long wanted to make John Ramey, who is a talented musician in addition to his radio work for the Nevada Wolf Pack, come into the studio and play that intro and outro live in the studio as we start a segment and toss to break. We could put him in front of our Battle Born logo and keep a solo camera on him.

Just 10 seconds later since I assume that lawsuit is already drafted. But the departing Mountain West schools are not getting out of their exit fees. They’re just trying to get shave a little off the top of the final price tag.

There are enough California schools in the NEVADA Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA). Please don’t try to add anymore. I get South Tahoe High, which is 6 miles from the Nevada border with no other California schools close by being part of the NIAA. I’m not as keen on the other California-based schools being in the NIAA.

Our high school football preview series included every Northern 5A and 4A team. We didn’t do 3A schools. You can watch those 5A and 4A previews here.

Arizona Cardinals kicker Bill Gramatica tearing his ACL celebrating a first-quarter field goal.

Kansas City Royals first baseman Kendrys Morales breaking his leg after jumping on home plate after a walk-off homer.

Washington Redskins quarterback Gus Frerotte spraining his neck after headbutting the wall after a touchdown run.

New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz tearing his patellar tendon jumping up and down after recording a save for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

Also, Indian soccer player Peter Biaksangzuala died after landing awkwardly while attempting a backflip celebration after a goal in 2014, so that’s the worst-case scenario.

For a sequential plate, the initial fee is $61 ($30 for renewal). For a personalized plate, the initial fee is $96 ($50 for renewal). Of that money, $25 of the initial fee and $20 of the annual renewal supports academic and athletic scholarships at Nevada. There’s a little money involved, but this is mostly a branding thing. And the Wolf Pack isn’t giving away premium parking for $20 a year.

I haven’t hit as many as I would like but have attended games at Dodger Stadium (Dodgers), Wrigley Field (Cubs), Coors Field (Rockies), Petco Park (Padres), Oracle Park (Giants) and Angel Stadium (Angels), so only six of the 30 MLB teams. Visiting every stadium could be a post-retirement goal.

See y’all next week.

Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. He writes a weekly Monday Mailbag despite it giving him a headache and it taking several hours to write. But people seem to like it, so he does it anyway. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.