Why is New Mexico State playing Ole Miss -- or anyone else?

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...iss-rebels

Maybe they won't be in the future, at least not at FBS level.

Ole Miss should throw these guys a bone and travel to Las Cruces

NMSU has survived the collapse of the Border conference, the MVC, and the WAC. Can they survive being cast out of the Sunbelt? You gotta wonder how successful they would be if they had had any form of stability

New Mexico state should probably an FCS program.

(10-07-2015 09:18 PM)solohawks Wrote:  NMSU has survived the collapse of the Border conference, the MVC, and the WAC. Can they survive being cast out of the Sunbelt? You gotta wonder how successful they would be if they had had any form of stability

And the Big West too.

(10-07-2015 09:24 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  

(10-07-2015 09:18 PM)solohawks Wrote:  NMSU has survived the collapse of the Border conference, the MVC, and the WAC. Can they survive being cast out of the Sunbelt? You gotta wonder how successful they would be if they had had any form of stability

And the Big West too.

Youre right. Is nmsu the confernce killer? Sunbelt stabilized after nmsu left

New Mexico State is a land grant school, but not a flagship. If they can revamp rules? New Mexico State with Idaho and former FBS West Texas A&M could form a new west central conference for all sports. Recruit schools from Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, iowa, the Dakotas, and any Big Sky schools that wanted FBS, but were blocked from joining the WAC.

There were no big sky schools blocked from joining the wac. Wac football died because no big sky schools wanted to join

Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton have appeared in bowl games more recently than NMSU, and their last downs were in 1992. You can only pin so much on the lack of conference stability. That's no excuse for not participating in a bowl game since JFK was elected president.

(10-08-2015 02:10 AM)jdgaucho Wrote:  Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton have appeared in bowl games more recently than NMSU, and their last downs were in 1992. You can only pin so much on the lack of conference stability. That's no excuse for not participating in a bowl game since JFK was elected president.

Actually, they were 7-5 in 2002 but since the Sunbelt at the time only had a bowl for the conference champ, they didn't get to go to a bowl game. They finished 2nd in the conference with a 5-1 record.
Sad they didn't get an invite to another bowl.

You boy's play nice in the sandbox, everyone can't be be Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, ND, they need a bone thrown their way just like everyone else.

(10-07-2015 09:19 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  New Mexico state should probably an FCS program.

Maybe, but schools simply aren't willing to drop down from FBS to FCS. I see that suggestion all of the time on these boards and it's just a non-starter when you're running those athletic departments. That's like a city saying that it will let its poor performing MLB team leave in exchange for a better performing AAA team. Maybe it makes some financial sense (although I believe FCS actually makes the worst financial sense of them all since they still have heavy scholarship obligations without anywhere near the potential revenue even when in a G5 league) and maybe it makes some competitive sense, but being the worst team at the top level continues to be perceived to be a better place than being the top team at a lower level. Schools aren't just going to give up their FBS slots willingly (and the NCAA is careful not to be looked at as slapping down the little guys in taking any FBS slots away).

(10-08-2015 01:51 AM)solohawks Wrote:  There were no big sky schools blocked from joining the wac. Wac football died because no big sky schools wanted to join

I believe your first sentence, but definitely don't believe your second sentence. FCS-level Big Sky schools couldn't just unilaterally proclaim that they were moving up to the FBS-level WAC. Even assuming that those Big Sky schools could get approved by the NCAA to move up to the FBS-level, it would have taken several years (meaning that the WAC would have still been killed off in the interim).

The two things that I often see overrated on this board:

(1) The *ability* of top performing FCS schools to move up to FBS.
(2) The *willingness* of poor performing FBS schools to move down to FCS.

#1 very rarely happens and #2 NEVER happens in today's college sports world.

(10-08-2015 09:39 AM)MWC Tex Wrote:  

(10-08-2015 02:10 AM)jdgaucho Wrote:  Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton have appeared in bowl games more recently than NMSU, and their last downs were in 1992. You can only pin so much on the lack of conference stability. That's no excuse for not participating in a bowl game since JFK was elected president.

Actually, they were 7-5 in 2002 but since the Sunbelt at the time only had a bowl for the conference champ, they didn't get to go to a bowl game. They finished 2nd in the conference with a 5-1 record.
Sad they didn't get an invite to another bowl.

Maybe so, but NMSU hasn't reached a bowl game despite playing in the lower level conferences for over 50 years. You'd think they would have lucked out into one as a member of the Missouri Valley, Big West, WAC or Sun Belt.

Hmmmm ..... that article read rather mean-spirited to me.

New Mexico State football definitely exists at the margins of FBS football ---- but they are FBS. (1) They meet the NCAA requirements for maintaining an FBS program and the (2) University administration remains committed to playing football at this highest level.

So given the two points above, why does anyone care about NMSU being FBS? They should drop out just because they don't win very much. Bull kaka.

Articles like this make me want to root for the Aggies.

(10-08-2015 10:35 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(10-07-2015 09:19 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  New Mexico state should probably an FCS program.

Maybe, but schools simply aren't willing to drop down from FBS to FCS. I see that suggestion all of the time on these boards and it's just a non-starter when you're running those athletic departments. That's like a city saying that it will let its poor performing MLB team leave in exchange for a better performing AAA team. Maybe it makes some financial sense (although I believe FCS actually makes the worst financial sense of them all since they still have heavy scholarship obligations without anywhere near the potential revenue even when in a G5 league) and maybe it makes some competitive sense, but being the worst team at the top level continues to be perceived to be a better place than being the top team at a lower level. Schools aren't just going to give up their FBS slots willingly (and the NCAA is careful not to be looked at as slapping down the little guys in taking any FBS slots away).

When Rice did their analysis about a decade ago this was certainly what they concluded. In fact, the two most rational choices for schools like us was to remain D1A (as it was known then) or go all the way to D3.

(10-08-2015 11:20 AM)NittanyLion Wrote:  Hmmmm ..... that article read rather mean-spirited to me.

New Mexico State football definitely exists at the margins of FBS football ---- but they are FBS. (1) They meet the NCAA requirements for maintaining an FBS program and the (2) University administration remains committed to playing football at this highest level.

So given the two points above, why does anyone care about NMSU being FBS? They should drop out just because they don't win very much. Bull kaka.

Articles like this make me want to root for the Aggies.

Now that's something we can agree on!

(10-08-2015 10:42 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(10-08-2015 01:51 AM)solohawks Wrote:  There were no big sky schools blocked from joining the wac. Wac football died because no big sky schools wanted to join

I believe your first sentence, but definitely don't believe your second sentence. FCS-level Big Sky schools couldn't just unilaterally proclaim that they were moving up to the FBS-level WAC. Even assuming that those Big Sky schools could get approved by the NCAA to move up to the FBS-level, it would have taken several years (meaning that the WAC would have still been killed off in the interim).

The two things that I often see overrated on this board:

(1) The *ability* of top performing FCS schools to move up to FBS.
(2) The *willingness* of poor performing FBS schools to move down to FCS.

#1 very rarely happens and #2 NEVER happens in today's college sports world.

I would say WAC football died because not enough Big Sky schools were able to join. If the WAC was certain to still be around, Montana and Montana St. might well have joined. They had the capability and were seriously considering it. Others may have had the desire, but not the financial or fan support to do it.

But that would have been only 7 schools, assuming they kept Texas St., UTSA and Louisiana Tech.

(10-08-2015 11:20 AM)NittanyLion Wrote:  Hmmmm ..... that article read rather mean-spirited to me.

New Mexico State football definitely exists at the margins of FBS football ---- but they are FBS. (1) They meet the NCAA requirements for maintaining an FBS program and the (2) University administration remains committed to playing football at this highest level.

So given the two points above, why does anyone care about NMSU being FBS? They should drop out just because they don't win very much. Bull kaka.

Articles like this make me want to root for the Aggies.

They also have a few upgrades to their stadium. Putting in luxury skyboxes that should be complete here very soon.

Well, I'm gonna root (quietly) for NMSU because Doug Martin was the OC at ECU when the Pirates had that crazy success run from 1999-2001 when David Garrard was QB.