NEVADA LAS VEGAS PENALTIES : Sanctions Could Mean Shortfall for Big West

Playing in a conference with Nevada Las Vegas has always meant a share of the spotlight for Big West Conference schools. It has also meant a share of the spoils.

Now, with the NCAA’s announcement Friday barring UNLV’s basketball team from defending its national championship, Big West schools might also share the penalty.

UC Irvine finished the past basketball season with a 5-23 record, the worst in school history. But when NCAA tournament revenue was distributed, Irvine received $73,000, more than $46,000 of which was the result of UNLV reaching the NCAA tournament’s Final Four.

“Vegas has been supporting a lot of teams in the conference over the years,” said Bill Mulligan, Irvine coach. “This is going to affect a lot of schools.”

In a conference in which several schools have annual budget crises, athletic departments are likely to feel some financial impact as a result of the NCAA’s sanctions against UNLV, which involves violations brought forth in 1977. The Rebels joined the conference four years later.

Most conference schools plan for NCAA tournament revenue in their budgets, with varying degrees of caution. Cal State Fullerton assumes that a Big West school or schools will play two NCAA games.

UNLV earned slightly more than $1.4 million for reaching the Final Four this year, of which its share was slightly more than $1 million, including NCAA revenues earned by UC Santa Barbara and New Mexico State.

But in what could prove a fortuitous change for Big West schools, the NCAA is currently considering a proposal that would change the distribution formula for tournament revenues, spreading money more evenly among participating conferences, with less emphasis on how long an individual school stays in the tournament.

Last season, schools received $286,500 for making the tournament, and earned additional money for each round they advanced. In most cases, the money was shared among their conference members in varying formulas.

The proposed formula calls for distribution based on conference performance in the tournament over the previous six years. If passed, it could go into effect in time for the 1991 tournament, thereby sparing the Big West some of the effects of the UNLV ban.

The Big West is also faced with a dilemma in deciding whether to allow UNLV to participate in its postseason tournament, which decides the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

To ban UNLV would almost certainly mean significant financial losses, because UNLV fans make up a large part of the attendance. Each conference member earned about $12,000 from the Big West tournament last year. This season’s tournament will be held at the Long Beach Arena.

But to include UNLV could result in forfeiting the conference’s automatic NCAA bid, should UNLV win the Big West tournament.

Big West Commissioner Jim Haney said no decision on the conference tournament would be made until the appeals process is exhausted.

“Philosophically, I think it’s inappropriate to have an institution participate in an automatic bid qualifying tournament that is not eligible to participate in the tournament,” said Ed Carroll, Cal State Fullerton athletic director.

The current NCAA sanctions might not be the end of the Big West’s financial fallout from UNLV’s ongoing involvement with the NCAA.

Big West schools could feel further financial impact should UNLV be penalized as a result of an ongoing NCAA investigation into the recruitment of New York city prep star Lloyd Daniels.

If UNLV were barred from appearing on live television, a common penalty, Big West schools would no longer receive money from television rights fees, which are shared with conference members.

UNLV received $177,000 for playing in nine games televised by ABC, CBS or NBC last season. Each conference school received $45,655 of the $900,000 generated by those games. A television packager, Creative Sports Marketing Inc., received a large portion of the remainder under a contract that gives the packager 50% of revenues more than $500,000.