June 14, 2004

LAS VEGAS - UNLV has filled some holes in its future football schedule by signing on for a home-and-home series with both Wisconsin and Idaho, the school announced Monday.

The Rebels now are set to visit Madison, Wis., on Sept. 4, 2010, and the Badgers will return to Las Vegas on Sept. 3, 2011. The additional games extend the popular cross-county rivalry between UNLV of the Mountain West Conference and the perennially powerful Big Ten Conference school.

First meeting in 1985, UNLV and Wisconsin have played each other six times, with UW holding a 4-2 advantage. Last year, the Rebels won at Camp Randall Stadium 23-5 over the 14th-ranked hosts. UNLV goes right back to Madison this fall to play on Sept. 11 while the Badgers will return the game on Sept. 8, 2007.

"This popular series, which began in part because of the efforts of the late Mr. Tom Wiesner, has proven to be an exciting matchup that fans of both schools have enjoyed tremendously," UNLV director of athletics Mike Hamrick said. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Badgers for years to come."

Wiesner, the Wisconsin native and three-time letterman on the Badger football team, was a leading Las Vegas businessman and helped his two favorite schools first get together on the gridiron almost two decades ago. Three of the five biggest UNLV home crowds in history have come to see the Rebels face the Badgers, including a state-record total of 42,075 fans in 2002.

UNLV will also renew its series with Idaho when the Vandals come to Sam Boyd Stadium on Sept. 10, 2005. The Rebels are scheduled to return the game on Sept. 18, 2010. Idaho, which will play as part of the Sun Belt Conference this fall, will be a member of UNLV's former league, the Western Athletic Conference, by the time it comes to Las Vegas next year. The all-time series between the two programs, which began in 1975, is tied at two apiece with the Vandals having taken the most recent meeting in 1994.