UNLV may be banned from the postseason this year, but the football team will still get the opportunity to play 13 games.
Following up on rumors that had surfaced in the last week, UNLV announced Thursday that it had indeed agreed to a 2014 game against Houston. The game will be played Sat., Sept. 20, in Houston and will earn the Rebels a $400,000 payday.
UNLV, which is barred from playing in a bowl game due to low APR scores, is permitted by NCAA bylaws to play a 13th regular season game because they play a game at Hawaii.
“We saw nothing but positives in adding a trip to Houston to the schedule,” said athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy. “Taking the team to play in a high-profile city and their brand-new stadium, while also helping our budget, is something that was certainly appealing. We are also excited to travel to an area of the country where a good number of our players call home. I want to thank University of Houston athletics director Mack Rhoades and his staff for their work in making this happen and we are looking forward to a great game.”
The work Rhoades and his staff put in to make it happen essentially boiled down to canceling a game against Tennessee Tech, for which UH will be compelled to pay an unspecified buyout.
The Rebels and Cougars have met two times previously, the last coming in 1990. UH has won both games in the mini-series.
The opportunity to played a third game against that program was too much to pass up, especially when you combine the opportunity to connect on the recruiting front in Texas as well as afford some of their players (10 total) to play a home game on the road.
“We have a big group from Texas, including four seniors, so getting to play in front of friends and family will be memorable,” head coach Bobby Hauck said in a statement. “Texas is also one of our biggest recruiting areas after Nevada and California so we look forward to playing down there this fall against a bowl team in Houston.”