UNLV Considering Move to Division I College Hockey?

It's been commonplace over the past decade or so for there to be various rumors of universities considering the jump to Division I college hockey, and with the Big Ten creating their own conference---for better or much, much, much worse--and Arizona State making the surprising jump this past year, rumors of other schools ready to make the jump have only grown louder, albeit while staying relatively vague. Of course, for every Penn State and Arizona State, there seems to be a dozen Kenesaw State's or Minnesota State Moorhead's among many others that never materialize.

But the Los Angeles Kings website Mayor's Manor had a very interesting report today about the University of Nevada-Las Vegas as potentially the next school to make the jump to Division I college hockey.

The number one question when it comes to a team making the jump is always: Where is the money going to come from? At this point, UNLV doesn't seem to have anybody lined up, but they do have someone seemingly interested in making the push to find that money. Zee Khan, who played at Arizona State, and was partially involved in the process of helping Arizona State make the jump to Division 1, is heading the project, and was willing to give some quotes on the record about it to Mayor's Manor:

"It could be a year, and it could be three. The meetings are already happening," Khan stated. "It’s really a matter of finding money, which, is available to us possibly here. (UNLV) is willing to listen, and willing to at least look at the possibility of making the jump."

Even in a town like Vegas, the $30-40+ million that is likely the bare minimum needed to make the jump is difficult to come by. But it is a situation that appears to be worth watching as there are people actively working on it.