UNLV will travel to Memphis in 2029 for the first time ever. However, the Rebels had multiple opportunities to visit the Liberty Bowl in the 1990s and 2000s.
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UNLV and Memphis announced a two-game series in 2026 and 2029, promising to be one of the marquee games of the college football season in those years. UNLV hosts Memphis this year, while the Rebels make the return trip three years later. Although UNLV has never met Memphis, the Rebels will make up for lost time when they travel to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
UNLV had a five-year window to make the Liberty Bowl from 1998 to 2002. In 1998, some midseason maneuvering by WAC commissioner Karl Benson landed WAC Championship Game participant BYU in the Liberty Bowl. UNLV went 0-11 that year.
Luckily, the Rebels had more opportunities to make the Liberty Bowl after they left with seven other WAC members to form the Mountain West. The new conference signed an agreement with the Memphis bowl game. The Mountain West agreed to send its champion to the Liberty Bowl for the first five years of the league’s existence. UNLV went 20-27 from 1999 to 2003 and only made one bowl game. In the one year they made a bowl game, the Rebels peaked at third in the league in 2000, landing in the Las Vegas Bowl, a far cry from the Liberty Bowl.
Now, UNLV is far removed from its 2000s futility. The series with Memphis is an effort by the best programs in the Group of Five to bolster their non-conference schedules and compensate for the cancellations of Power Five series. Memphis likely would not have scheduled UNLV if it were not one of the top programs in the Group of Five over the past few years. This is a testament to just how far UNLV has come from its early 2000s futility and missed Liberty Bowl opportunities.
