Mailbag leftover: What grade does the Nevada athletic department get for 2024-25 season?

On occasion, a Monday Mailbag question requires too much time for me to include in the weekly feature, so I write it up separately as a "Mailbag leftover." I got such a question this week from reader Todd Hartline, who asked for an end-of-the-season grade for Nevada athletics and its athletic director, Stephanie Rempe, in 2024-25. Let's answer that question.

We'll start by doing a program-by-program overview of Nevada's 2024-25 season, which is done except for javelin thrower Lilly Urban competing at the NCAA Championship next week. We did not include skiing below because it is a non-Mountain West sport. Here is where each Wolf Pack program finished in the MW this season with their overall record and league record included along with a link to the team's full-season report card (except for track and field, which will get its report card after Urban is done competing).

MW finishes by Nevada programs

1st — Softball (41-14, 18-4 MW — first out of nine)

1st — Baseball (34-23, 19-11 MW — first out of eight)

2nd — Women's tennis (17-4, 8-2 MW — second out of 11)

3rd — Women's golf (third out of nine)

4th — Women's swim and dive (5-0 — fourth out of 10)

4th — Men's tennis (13-10, 2-4 MW — tied for fourth out of seven)

6th — Women's soccer (6-13-2, 4-5-2 MW — tied for sixth out of 12)

6th — Women's outdoor track and field (sixth out of 11)

7th — Women's cross country (seventh out of 11)

7th — Men's basketball (17-16, 8-12 MW — seventh out of 11)

7th — Men's cross country (seventh out of nine)

8th — Men's golf (eighth out of 11)

9th — Women's basketball (11-21, 6-12 MW — ninth out of 11)

9th — Women's indoor track and field (ninth out of 11)

10th — Volleyball (12-17, 5-13 MW — 10th out of 11 teams)

12th — Football (3-10, 0-7 MW — 12th out of 12)

Softball and baseball gave the Wolf Pack two MW titles, those two championships tying the program high in one season since moving to the league in 2012-13. In total, four of Nevada's 16 programs finished top three in the league. Meanwhile, five of the Wolf Pack program finished bottom three in the league. That's a better ratio than most of Nevada's seasons. Still, nine of the Wolf Pack's 16 programs finished in the bottom half of the MW standings.

One of the difficult parts about grading an athletic department's season is allocating how much weight goes to each program's results. Whether you like it or not, results from football and men's basketball weigh more heavily than those in men's cross country and women's tennis, for example, given the financial implications of those two revenue sports and the expense of funding them (the football and men's basketball budget last fiscal year was just shy of $20 million; the rest of Nevada's sports combined were $15 million).

I would allocate the weight as follows — 25 percent football; 25 percent men's basketball; 10 percent women's basketball; 10 percent softball; 10 percent baseball; and 20 percent combined for the rest of the sports. With that as our basis, the grade takes a hit with Nevada football going 3-10 and finishing last in the MW with a winless record. And men's basketball might have had an even more disappointing year than football given the preseason expectations (third in the MW preseason poll; seventh in the standings). Nevada women's basketball also placed ninth out of 11. Things perked up in the spring with the softball and baseball titles, women's tennis finishing second and women's golf third.

There were also great individual accolades like Aaliyah Jenkins winning MW player of the year in softball; Amahée Charrier doing the same in tennis; Youssef Kadiri becoming the first men's tennis player in school history to qualify for the NCAA Tournament; and Gabby Kano qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open in golf.

But Nevada failed to put a team in an NCAA Tournament this season for the first time in a non-COVID season since 2015-16, and even that year Nevada women's swimming and diving finished 20th in the nation (they compete at individuals at nationals in swim and dive). So, the lack of an NCAA Tournament berth in any sport for the first time in nine seasons (excluding the COVID year) is noteworthy. Overall, the department took a step forward this season despite the disappointing results from the revenue sports. So, I'll slap a "C" on the season.

As for the Rempe's grade, the Wolf Pack's two regular-season championships were won by head coaches she hired in Victoria Hayward (softball) and Jake McKinley (baseball). She also helped push a couple of major facility developments over the funding finish line, including the $430 million GSR Arena project and securing up to $20 million in student fees for the construction of an indoor FieldHouse. Both should break ground this spring/summer. She also pitched an ambitious 10-year, $50 million investment into Nevada football. We'll see if that comes to fruition, but at least it shows some planning and forethought on how to fix football, which lacked under the previous administration.

The one demerit, if we want to call it that, is Nevada not getting an invitation into the Pac-12 during the MW split in September. Given the situation inherited, mostly with the football program, there's not much Rempe could have done, it seems, to get that Pac-12 invitation over Utah State, the last team in. Overall, it was a year of progress on the field and in facility development, so I'd assign a "B" here.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.