On weekday mornings, Nevada Sports Net will recap three big headlines of the day in its Morning Download. Read below for today’s topics.
1. Pac-12 remains open to further expansion
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura wrote a feature on the Pac-12 and its future with interviews with commissioner Teresa Gould and Washington State athletic director Anne McCoy as well as Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez. Gould said the Pac-12 remains open to further expansion beyond its nine-school membership that includes the minimum eight football programs but declined to identify specific targets. “If we sit right where we are, we’re good with that,” she told ESPN. “If there are other growth opportunities, that’s great, we’ll consider them against our criteria and deal with that on a case-by-case basis and absolutely have a long-term strategy in terms of what that should look like.” There are no obvious expansion choices after the Pac-12 added the Sun Belt’s Texas State, which might not have been scraping the bottom of the barrel to get to the required eight football members but was at least three-quarters of the way down the barrel. Memphis continues to show little interest in the Pac-12 after unsuccessfully trying to buy a spot in the Big 12. UNLV and Air Force turned down a Pac-12 offer and are locked into the MW’s grant of media rights through 2032. There are no obvious expansion targets unless the ACC destabilizes and triggers further national changes.
2. Ex-Nevada basketball staffer goes viral at DMV
Former Nevada men’s basketball director of operations Brandon Chambers, who is now an assistant coach at North Carolina State, went viral Tuesday while waiting in line at the DMV to update his driver’s license after moving from Louisiana where he was an assistant at McNeese State under Will Wade, who is NC State’s first-year head coach. While everybody thinks their state’s DMV is the worst, North Carolina makes a strong case for that title (the new Reno DMV is actually solid). Chambers showed up at 5:45 a.m., well before the DMV opened, but was still 28th in line. It took him more than two hours just to get into the building to get on the virtual waiting list in what ended up being a several-hours-long saga. His wait was picked up by the local news.
3. Nevada football’s kickoff time at Wyoming set
The Nevada football team’s kickoff at Wyoming has been set for a noon local time start (11 a.m. Pacific). That games marks the Wolf Pack’s penultimate of the regular season and offers the team’s earliest start time in 2025. The game was not picked up by the national television partners, so Wyoming got to pick the kick time. And given the winter temps in Laramie in November (the game is scheduled for Nov. 22), the early start gives both teams the best shot at playing in reasonable temperatures. It also allows Nevada to get home after the game at a reasonable time. Every Wolf Pack game now has a set kickoff time except for the Oct. 18 contest at New Mexico. You can see Nevada’s full schedule here.