UNR's athletics department paid former college football coach Urban Meyer more than $50,000 this summer to headline its annual fundraiser supporting student-athlete scholarships and programming, according to records obtained by The Nevada Independent.

The university paid Meyer $54,891 to speak at the 57th annual Governor's Dinner on July 22. Nevada Sports Net first reported the payout details. The fundraiser was hosted by Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) and his wife at the governor's mansion in Carson City.

The payment breaks down into a $50,000 appearance fee, $2,394 in travel costs for Meyer and $2,497 in travel costs for his agent, Sean Morgan of Morgan Sports Partners.

Meyer wore a Caesars-branded shirt instead of a Nevada football shirt, he said in a Yahoo Sports article, because his daughter's husband, Corey Dennis, is UNLV's offensive coordinator. "I'm not scared of him (the governor) or Dan Mullen," Meyer said. "But I'm horrified of my daughter." 

He said he'd also been told in no uncertain terms to steer clear of wearing UNLV's red to the event.

The Nevada Independent reached out to UNR football spokesperson Aaron Juarez multiple times seeking comment on the payment and how much the fundraiser ultimately raised. He did not respond.

One donation is known. At the event, the Las Vegas Raiders pledged $1 million to UNR athletics with owner Mark Davis and team President Sandra Douglass Morgan, a UNR graduate, in attendance. Athletic Director Stephanie Rempe told Nevada Sports Net that the gift will fund a renaming of the football building's entrance to the "Las Vegas Raiders Entrance." 

Sponsorships for the dinner ranged from $3,500 to $7,500 for a table of 10, with single tickets going for $350 and $500, according to the event's promotional materials.

When the university announced Meyer as the dinner's headliner in May, UNR President Brian Sandoval, a 1986 alumnus who earned his law degree from Ohio State in 1989, called him "one of the most influential voices in the sport as a broadcaster and podcaster." He welcomed Meyer as "a friend and fellow Buckeye," referring to the nickname of Ohio State's football team, which Meyer led to a national championship in 2014. 

Sandoval said Meyer "set a standard of championship level excellence that changed how the modern college game is played."

Meyer's fee comes as UNR's athletic program has posted its largest budget in program history. The department reported $57.75 million in expenses against $58.68 million in revenue in fiscal year 2025, a record, but leaned on roughly $29.3 million in state, university and student-fee money to supplement income. The football program alone ran a $3.76 million deficit last year, the program's third straight season with a deficit of at least $3 million.

The Governor's Dinner has featured a nationally known sports figure as its keynote speaker for decades, with past headliners including Joe Montana, Charles Barkley and former Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Paying big fees for celebrity speakers is a well-established if controversial practice among universities. UNLV paid Hillary Clinton $225,000 to speak at a 2014 fundraiser, drawing pushback from student leaders amid tuition increases at the time. 

UNLV athletics launched its own Governor's Dinner fundraiser this year, with Caesars Entertainment executive and former UNLV and NFL quarterback Glenn Carano headlining the Aug. 31 event at Allegiant Stadium. Lombardo also attended that dinner. UNLV spokesperson Tony Allen told The Nevada Independent that Carano did not charge a fee to appear, and that the inaugural event raised roughly $600,000 for UNLV Athletics and its more than 500 student-athletes.

The practice extends well beyond Nevada. Salem State University paid Tom Brady $170,000 for a May 2015 speech. The University of Houston paid Matthew McConaughey $135,000 for its 2015 commencement address. The University of Maine paid historian Doris Kearns Goodwin $45,000 for a 2012 speech. The Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts think tank, pointed specifically to Salem State's Brady payment as an example of "skewed spending priorities" in public higher education, noting the school had little money that year for art students' supplies.

Meyer coached at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State, winning three national championships. Meyer later spent one season, 2021, as head coach of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, going 2-11 before he was fired amid a string of controversies, including a viral video of him at a Columbus, Ohio, bar with a young woman dancing near him and a former kicker's allegation that Meyer kicked him during a practice. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2025 and now works as a college football studio analyst for Fox Sports.

In the press release announcing his booking, Meyer said he was "bullish on the future of the Nevada program" and looking forward to "sharing a special evening together supporting the Wolf Pack."