Mountain West lives, breathes for bottom line

The Mountain West Conference seemingly always balances between shades of big or small time, of doing things in a major or minor way.

Big time: football programs that consistently crash the party of a Bowl Championship Series cartel.

Small time: censorship of comments on weekly coaching teleconferences.

Big time: Texas Christian cheerleaders.

Small time: Channel 334 on your Cox Cable remote.

Big time: A basketball league that ranks fifth in Ratings Percentage Index.

Small time: Holding a conference tournament in the same venue where a member school plays its home games and is 16-0 this season.

The reason for the last never has changed, save a three-year window when the event was staged in Denver before two ushers and a security guard.

It's money. Leagues not drawing BCS riches need to create as much financial stability as possible, and the Thomas & Mack Center has proven itself the best source of potential revenue each March when it comes to awarding an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament while making all but one coaching staff and group of players resent the Mothership out in Colorado Springs.

"We are a conference that scratches very hard for money," UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood said.

So the Rebels again have the luxury of remaining home for an event that could determine the NCAA fate of some while improving or worsening the seeds of others.

We have heard the unfairness argument to death.

It never has been wrong.

But while the advantages for UNLV are obvious -- familiar beds to sleep in and rims to shoot at -- the downsides are tougher to distinguish.

If there are any.

The Rebels have been placed on the Nos. 8-9 line of the NCAA bracket the past two seasons, each of which saw them lose on their home floor in the conference tournament to San Diego State -- once in the semifinals and once in the championship game.

UNLV offered numbers that would have seemed deserving of higher placement each time. It makes you wonder.

The Rebels open play tonight in a quarterfinal matchup against Wyoming at 8:30, and if we are to believe the majority of bracketologists dominating every Twitter update, UNLV is in position for a No. 5 or No. 6 seed when the field is announced Sunday.

Some have them as a No. 4 today, but those silly folks obviously didn't see games at New Mexico and TCU and Colorado State.

Livengood is past chair of the NCAA selection committee, and, while he realizes those are human beings and not robots hidden in hotel ballrooms eating ice cream and crunching resumes late into the night, he doesn't believe UNLV losing in its own arena during the league tournament directly influences its NCAA seed.

"You know, that's probably the perception the public has, but it's not true," Livengood said. "There are so many variables that go into (seeding)."

Think about it: Once the annual ocean of Big East Conference teams is selected, once the committee brackets the field in a way so those from the same league don't meet until a regional final, once it assures teams whose home arenas are hosting games get sent away, once it protects the top four lines in terms of travel, gauging how much to penalize a team for losing at home a few days before Selection Sunday can't possibly be a huge priority.

Which probably is best for UNLV.

In nine years of hosting the Mountain West event, the Rebels have won it three times. But they are 16-5 overall and have handled everyone not named San Diego State, which they are 2-4 against.

Las Vegas isn't the issue. It's the best place to hold this event. But the conference some time ago should have explored more seriously taking it into an arena such as the MGM Grand Garden (good move, Pac-12).

But this would have meant fewer seats sold for a league that lives and breathes for the bottom line. You get the picture.

People ask where I believe the Rebels will be seeded come Sunday, and, like the past few years, I always add at least one number.

Maybe it has to do with UNLV's penchant for losing on its court immediately before the madness begins, because that No. 8 seed last year, when the Rebels had an RPI of 26 and a schedule strength of 33 and finished third in the nation's fourth-toughest league, really made you wonder.

"Right now, we understand we have a very hard game to play," UNLV coach Dave Rice said. "Our whole focus is just trying to beat Wyoming. I suppose (seeding) could play into (committee members') minds if (the Rebels lose this week). But as the head coach of UNLV, I don't control where we play the conference tournament, so it's hard for me to speculate on things I have no control over.

"I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for, but so many factors go into seeding. A number of committee members might have different ideas about what things are important over others."

Here's a thought: Win three games in three days.

That way, seeding takes care of itself.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday on "Gridlock," ESPN Radio 1000 AM and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.