We’re just 10 days away from Christmas, and all I want under the tree are a few packs of baseball cards. For real. During last year’s Little League season, Topps gave each kid in the league a free pack, and that’s led to me and my son buying cards for the first time since I was a teenager. And those cards are more expensive now than they were in the late 1990s, so send your cards to KRNV (1790 Vassar Street), c/o Chris “Cards” Murray. Just kidding. Don’t send them. Unless they are Shohei Ohtani cards. I will take those. Especially if they are rookies. But I hope everybody gets what they want for Christmas, which might be a few more Nevada Wolf Pack wins. Let’s dig into this week’s Monday Mailbag. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.

Good question, Chris.

The answer is two words: “Josh Allen.”

I’ve broadly touched on this subject before about whether Nevada would rather be great at football or men’s basketball. And 95 percent of athletic directors of FBS schools would pick football over basketball because (a) that’s where the most revenue potential is and (b) that’s what drives media-rights deals and conference realignment. If you want your athletic department to be in the best spot possible, you’d take winning in football over winning in basketball if you had to choose. Nevada is a good example. Wolf Pack men’s basketball has been mostly good in the 2000s with some “great” mixed in and has still struggled financially while being left behind in the Mountain West when the Pac-12 came to raid that league. If Nevada was better in football and worse in basketball in the 2000s, maybe it gets that Pac-12 invitation because it’d be a bigger draw for a media-rights deal, ala Boise State, which has prioritized and succeeded in building a championship-level football program while being good but not great in basketball this century.

That’s the macro view of your question. You’re asking a micro-view question specifically about the 2026-27 season. Would Nevada rather go 9-4 in football next year or see its men’s basketball team reach the NCAA Tournament’s second round? I think Wolf Pack fans would pick the basketball second-round NCAA Tournament result. I think Nevada’s administration would pick football going 9-4, especially if that included a Mountain West title (if it’s a MW runner-up finish, that’s more debatable). But, more than anything, the Wolf Pack needs to fix its football program to create more revenue for the rest of its sports. So, getting actual results and enthusiasm in that sport is preeminent for Wolf Pack athletics as it makes the transition to the new MW.

For me? I would pick the second-round NCAA Tournament appearance, a place Nevada has reached just four times in its history, and not yet under current coach Steve Alford, so getting more national momentum in that sport is key, too. But Nevada only has two conference football titles since moving to the WAC in 2000, so that’s been an even more rare accomplishment. I just think winning an NCAA Tournament game is more valuable in fan currency than winning a conference football title. From an actual currency standpoint, being good in football is unmatched in college athletics.

Are you asking if six wins is an unavoidable result because Nevada football’s schedule is easy? Or is six wins the targeted mark to hit in 2026 for Jeff Choate’s team to show legitimate progress?

The first is definitely not true. Nevada football can’t lock in six wins in 2026 because the Mountain West isn’t as tough given how the program has performed the last four seasons. Play like that again and it will be another three or four victories.

The second interpretation of your question is more fair. I do think Nevada needs to get to a bowl in 2026 to show substantial progress. Going 5-7 in the new MW, which is essentially the old Conference USA, won’t cut it. Bowl or bust.

Ideally, you’d play two games per week, but given the Nevada men’s basketball team’s recent injury issues, this extra rest isn’t the worst thing in the world. Corey Camper Jr. and Joel Armotrading are “probably going to be out” against Boise State in Saturday’s Mountain West opener, per coach Steve Alford, so the extra time off hasn’t been a terrible deal. But you do lose some sharpness playing just one game a week.

Generally, I don’t really care who starts. It’s about who finishes, and Peyton White has been on the court at the end of close games. White’s offensive rebound off a crucial missed free throw by Elijah Price helped Nevada beat UC San Diego and Duquesne. He’s been huge for the Wolf Pack and is gaining playing time, averaging 23.5 minutes per game over the last four contests after sitting at 12.7 per game in the first seven. White is clearly one of Nevada’s five best players, but it’s also nice to have a pop like that off the bench. I would note that Nevada has gotten off to slow starts in many of its recent games, so if a slow start against Boise State leads to a home loss in the MW opener, you could see White move into the starting lineup. I don’t think Nevada is quite there yet as he’s come off the bench in all 11 games so far this season.

The current plan is to keep Lawlor Events Center in place and have it be the home to Nevada women’s basketball. I think that’s the long-term likelihood as well. Lawlor is used for a few other events as well as winter commencement and high school graduations. Personally, I would blow the building up and turn it into student housing and try and renovate Virginia Street Gym into a more modern facility for Wolf Pack women’s hoops while mandating that team gets to play a few games a year at GSR Arena. But that’s not happening. The fact a power outage cost Nevada women’s basketball a win Saturday was not a good look for a team that will stay stuck in that arena while the Wolf Pack men get to play in a new $435 million arena. It is true that university president Brian Sandoval has poured a ton of money into women’s athletics facilities over the last five years. But it was odd seeing Nevada be part of the sales pitch for GSR Arena in recent years saying Lawlor is too decrepit to host Wolf Pack men’s basketball games (but it’s apparently good enough to house the Nevada women’s basketball team).

Here are the active Mountain West men’s basketball NCAA Tournament units as part of the current six-year payout cycle:

2020 units: Tournament canceled due to pandemic

2021 units: Two (SDSU, Utah State one each)

2022 units: Four (SDSU, Colorado State, Wyoming, Boise State one each)

2023 units: Eight (SDSU five, Boise State one, Utah State one, Nevada one)

2024 units: 10 (SDSU three, Colorado State two, Utah State two, Nevada one, Boise State one, New Mexico one)

2025 units: Six (Colorado State two, New Mexico two, SDSU one, Utah State one)

Total units: 30 units (SDSU 11; Utah State five; Colorado State five; New Mexico three; Boise State three; Nevada two; Wyoming one)

While 24 of those 30 units were earned by teams leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12, those units will stay with the MW since those schools were members of that league when earning them.

UNLV has lost to, among other teams, Montana (KenPom 205), Tennessee Martin (KenPom 239) and Tennessee State (KenPom 241) this season. To put that in perspective, Nevada has only four losses against KenPom 200-plus schools during Steve Alford’s 6.5-year tenure, those coming in 2020-21 to San Diego (KenPom 232); 2019-20 to Air Force (KenPom 332); and 2019-20 to Wyoming (KenPom 246) and San Jose State (KenPom 290).

The last time Nevada lost to three or more KenPom 200-plus schools in one season was 2014-15, the last year of the David Carter era. Nevada lost to Weber State (KenPom 266); Nebraska Omaha (KenPom 256); Cal St. Fullerton (KenPom 292); Air Force (KenPom 204); Pacific (KenPom 240); and twice to Fresno State (KenPom 203), so seven KenPom 200-plus defeats with the Wolf Pack finishing 9-22 and 270th in the KenPom rankings that season.

It’s hard to tell since we don’t know how much Nevada is spending in NIL and revenue sharing and how that compares to other Mountain West schools. I think Nevada is competitive in NIL when it comes to men’s basketball and not competitive in that market in football. The rest of the sports, minus women’s basketball and maybe a few one-off athletes like Sean Yamaguchi in baseball, don’t really participate in the NIL market in a big way. It’s hard to raise NIL money without on-field results, and it’s hard to have on-field results with a strong NIL budget. That conundrum has made things tough for Nevada, which hasn’t won big enough in most of its sports to raise significant NIL pots. And when it comes to revenue sharing, Nevada hasn’t sold enough tickets and doesn’t have a large enough media-rights deal to use that as a major recruiting carrot.

Fun Fact: John Cena wrestled in Reno four times, doing so in 2004 in a WWE Smackdown bout win over Sakoda (with Akio); a 2009 WWE SmackDown/ECW House Show win over The Miz; a 2010 WWE RAW House Show win over Batista and Sheamus with partner Mark Henry; and in 2016 at the WWE World Title Triple Threat in a loss to AJ Styles in a bout that also featured Dean Ambrose. That being said, I’ve never seen a single second of a Cena wrestling match or movie, and I don’t think he’ll be involved in Nevada’s future NIL efforts.

1. Pat McDade

2. Jace Billingsley

3. Michael Billingsley

4. Beau Billingsley

5. Jim Billingsley

6. Another Random Billingsley

7. Chris Hornbarger

8. John Cena Billingsley

9. “Billy Bob” Billingsley

10. Kelly Pollock, Paul Smith, Blake Turner, John Davis, Peter Herold, Jarrin Prokasky, Ryan Nelson, Gus Duncan, Skyler Bleck, Jhett Harbor

This is not my area of expertise, but it seems like athletic departments, in signing private-equity deals, are trading long-term revenue for a short-term influx of money. “Give me money up front and we’ll give you X percent of future media-rights or ticket sales or sponsorship revenue.” I’m not a fan of that model, and I doubt Nevada goes anywhere near it. For starters, the Wolf Pack doesn’t appear to have a lot of future revenue opportunities with its media-rights deal a pittance compared to Power 4 schools, so I don’t know which legitimate private-equity firms would be interested in the Wolf Pack. It doesn’t seem like a stable long-term template for mid-major schools.

I don’t believe college athletics has a major revenue issue. It has a spending issue. And private-equity investment doesn’t solve that problem. These schools just can’t contain themselves in the arm’s race, so expenses are skyrocketing without the number of wins increasing; each game has one winner and one loser whether the entirety of the NCAA is spending $1 million annually on sports or $1 billion annually. For most athletic departments, only football and men’s basketball are profitable. I imagine these private-equity firms, if given voting power, will eventually target and kill Olympic sports to increase profitability. That’s not great for the health of college athletics. And if these deals make for for-profit endeavors, does that change the tax status of athletic departments? There are a lot unanswered questions for some short-term cash flow.

Power 4 athletics departments are playing a different game than Group of 6 athletic departments, and Group of 6 athletic departments trying to play the Power 4 game are doomed to a lot of debt or university subsidization. Let the Power 4 go private equity if they want. That template doesn’t fit the Group of 6 because their revenue is nowhere near that of Power 4 schools.

No way that happens. The best-case scenario is the Group of 6 breaks off and creates its own thing. The only issue with that is lack of access to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, although that has already been turned into the Power 4 Invitational, anyway. Not getting access into the NCAA men’s basketball tournament would suck, but let the Power 4 do its thing and run a more sane operation below that.

Probably.

Nevada baseball released its schedule last year on Dec. 12, so that should be coming out as soon as this week. Most schools have released their schedules, so I looked some of them up and found Nevada will play Stanford (March 2, March 11); Pacific (March 6-8); Gonzaga (March 30); Sac State (April 6, April 28); San Francisco (March 24); and Saint Mary’s (April 13, April 21) in non-league. No UCLA or Oregon State, as they’ve released their schedules sans Nevada. I was hoping to see Long Beach State or LSU on the Wolf Pack schedule since those programs are led by former Nevada head coaches, but neither will play the Wolf Pack. The full schedule should be out soon. Softball usually comes out in early January.

At least the Raiders are on track for the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, and what could go wrong there? The only other time the Raiders had the No. 1 overall pick they selected … JaMarcus Russell, and that worked out swimmingly. To be fair, the Raiders also had the No. 1 overall pick in the 1962 AFL draft and selected … Roman Gabriel, who played all of zero games with the Raiders.

Yes, Galena High alum Ian Gilligan earned his Korn Ferry Tour card Saturday with a tie for 20th in the final stage of PGA Tour Q School. The top-five finishers got their PGA Tour card while the top 48 got Korn Ferry Tour status for 2026. Big accomplishment.

Absolutely. I am a huge Moritz Seider fan. He goes by “Mo” for short. Despite only being 24, the Zell, Germany native has already earned the distinction of being the Detroit Red Wings’ alternate captain. The 2022 Calder Memorial Trophy winner, Seider is the best Germany defenseman since the great Christian Ehrhoff. He’s already fourth in scoring all-time among German defensemen in NHL history with 44 goals and 169 assists. His love of hockey started on a field trip at age 5, with Seider’s parents, Kay and Sabine, quitting their jobs as retirement home managers to nurse young Mo’s hockey dreams, which came to fruition when he became the second-highest NHL draft pick in German history, doing so while wearing a bowtie on draft night rather than the traditional tie. Seider wears No. 53, not in honor of “Herbie, the Love Bug” from those famous Disney movies but because that was his grandfather’s birth year. As you can tell, I am a big fan of Seider, who also is a big fan of candy, so much so he keeps that candy in his locker rather than at home so he doesn’t overindulge. He also gives some of that candy to teammates after good games. What a guy, that Moritz “Mo” Seider!

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.