UNLV basketball program ‘not on the market’: Runnin’ Rebels coach Josh Pastner walks again wild declare

The UNLV Basketball program is, in reality, not on the market. Days after Runnin’ Rebels coach Josh Pastner put a $10-12 million price ticket on his squad in broadly shared feedback to a neighborhood TV reporter, he walked again his remarks Monday.

“I wish to make clear my current feedback relating to assist for the UNLV males’s basketball program,” Pastner mentioned in a press release. “The Runnin’ Rebels will not be on the market, and my reference to an ‘proprietor’ was meant to spotlight the extent of assets, sponsorships, and general assist wanted to compete in at the moment’s evolving faculty athletics panorama — to not recommend anybody might personal this system.”

The truth that Pastner’s remarks wanted clarification are an indication of how fluid the faculty sports activities enterprise mannequin has turn out to be. With some colleges taking cash from personal fairness corporations and a few universities breaking off their athletic operations into third-party entities, the idea of faculty sports activities “possession” is not as far-fetched because it was.

Pastner’s preliminary feedback got here as he seemed forward to the anticipated arrival of an NBA franchise to Las Vegas within the coming years. Amid uncertainty over who might personal the franchise, Pastner offered an alternate.

“Purchase the faculty basketball workforce,” he mentioned in an interview with Taylor Rocha of KTNV. “It is authorized now. You could be the proprietor of UNLV Runnin’ Rebels males’s basketball workforce, and it is loads inexpensive. You do not have to spend over a billion {dollars} to personal our workforce. I am asking for $10 to 12 million to personal our workforce. You continue to get an awesome tax write-off and you may be as concerned, and you may inform everybody you are the proprietor of the workforce.”

UNLV adopted up on Sunday with a playful social media post itemizing different issues you should buy for $10 million similar to a jet or a mansion earlier than Pastner issued his Monday clarification that the Runnin’ Rebels will not be truly on the market.