New Mexico State May Hire Firm To Land Football Conference

[Drew]

Would’ve put this in re-alignment but given our Independence journey that is forthcoming...

New Mexico State may hire firm to land football conference

New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia says the school may hire an outside consulting firm to help its football team join an athletic conference.

apnews.com

New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia says the school may hire an outside consulting firm to help its football team join an athletic conference.

Moccia told reporters in Albuquerque last week the university is looking into hiring a firm to assist the university in putting together a robust package after the school tried to do it alone.

Sun Belt Conference announced in 2016 it was dropping New Mexico State and Idaho from its football conference.

 

[Pudge]

Woah …

Again, this is the equivalent of hiring the Ebersol kid and doing the American Alliance of Football again. Or that runt Zissou around here.

I am not going to tell you that Conference doesn't matter. We can see that broadly as we get bounced by Indiana. Then see the improvement of AAC Football. But, a lonely Las Cruces based University is going to have big problems in Football. It is a long way to anywhere. They should be playing Texas State, UTSA, UTEP, New Mexico, Northern Arizona, etc. But the strict conference guardrails sometimes excludes deserving U Football teams.

I don't know if they have a good answer. UCONN? We are a little better than NMSU is stature in many important ways. We shall see.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

A sliver of the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez and Albuquerque media markets might be enticing to no conference

 

[The Viking]

The "Breaking Bad" conference might work.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

What exactly are athletic department employees getting paid for, if not for this exact type of thing?

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Instead of criticizing New Mexico State it is time for UConn to be proactive and do likewise. Start with a consultant to make a decent schedule as an independent. Then, use a firm to help get us into a P5. I am sure many will reject the idea, but so far we haven't done well with our modern athletic directors.

 

[huskymedic]

Aggies battle small-market issues with fan base, sponsorships, revenue

Matching the Lobos in terms of the basics is Moccia’s goal. In the last four years, he has overseen a 300 percent increase in the Aggie Athletic Club.

www.santafenewmexican.com

>>Moccia said he will likely hire a national firm to make its case in the coming months. Part of the consideration is having NMSU pooling its bid with other schools as sort of a group effort to make it more appealing. There are only six independent programs in FBS, the others being Notre Dame, Army, BYU, Liberty and Massachusetts.

“Look, I can call every AD I know to talk about this,” Moccia said. “Our chancellor and our president can call their counterparts, but to really put a package together that makes sense and have deeper discussions that put everything on the table in an organized way that makes sense, I really think we need to look at hiring a firm to help us with this. We are on the cusp of doing that.”<<

 

[whaler11]

The only possible partnership is Liberty with CUSA. But I’m pretty sure they already told Liberty to pound sand.

NMSU and UTEP are right down from road from each other from a travel partner perspective in other sports.

The conference they belong in would line them up with Northern Arizona - the Big Sky. Reunite with Idaho. Miss those Vandals.

 

[huskyrob1]

Instead of criticizing New Mexico State it is time for UConn to be proactive and do likewise. Start with a consultant to make a decent schedule as an independent. Then, use a firm to help get us into a P5. I am sure many will reject the idea, but so far we haven't done well with our modern athletic directors.

It certainly wouldn't do any harm to hire a consultant to work on P5 possibilities, but as far as lining up football games for now, Benedict and Dan Hurley negotiating outside the Big East can get us football deals, especially if Husky Basketball turns back to it's winning ways, which I think it will.

 

[Purple Stein]

It certainly wouldn't do any harm to hire a consultant to work on P5 possibilities, but as far as lining up football games for now, Benedict and Dan Hurley negotiating outside the Big East can get us football deals, especially if Husky Basketball turns back to it's winning ways, which I think it will.

This is sort of it. Like, sure, we could hire a consultant to try to get us into a conference OR we could like, schedule some teams to play next year instead.

 

[Fishy]

Not sure why this is really even newsworthy - New Mexico State did not choose independence nor did they want it. The WAC ceased to exist as a football conference which forced them into an audition with the Sun Belt; they’ve been trying to find a permanent home since 2012.

The only difference today is that they’ve given up trying on their own and will now pay someone to help. It's not likely going to work, but it's better than doing whatever they've been doing.

And no, UConn should not be hiring someone to get them into the Big Ten or ACC or wherever your fever dreams have us going.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Instead of criticizing New Mexico State it is time for UConn to be proactive and do likewise. Start with a consultant to make a decent schedule as an independent. Then, use a firm to help get us into a P5.

People merely acknowledging facts regarding New Mexico State's location, primary media markets, and the relative interest level in the Aggies' 2 largest media markets is hardly criticism.

Noting your Nth repeated call for to hire scheduling consultants, how are you absolutely confident external resources (human, technology, etc) have not been utilized previously or are not being leveraged now?

 

[Storrs South]

It certainly wouldn't do any harm to hire a consultant to work on P5 possibilities

What is a consultant going to do, bribe someone, and FWIW it's not like they aren't doing their due diligence, from July:

A P5 invite wasn’t coming

One of the biggest concerns from UConn fans that aren’t happy with the move to the Big East is that it shuts the door on a potential invitation to a Power 5 conference. But according to Benedict, that simply isn’t a realistic possibility (something we touched on in our latest podcast).

“If you just look at things based on the current landscape and the current construct, it’s very difficult to imagine any current Power 5 conferences bringing another member institution into their league that can’t generate the type of money that they’re currently getting,” he said. “That’s not my opinion, we talked to a lot of people in the industry in all areas of it...it would be much more likely that the CFP would change and expand versus there’s going to be more realignment that you’re going to see teams moving into the Power 5 that are currently not there. Based on the things I know, that’s my best guess.”

Source: David Benedict on conference realignment, football independence, and more

 

[BlueDogs]

UConn needs to follow the Costanza strategy... come up with the best plan possible they can, then do the opposite. They are about 1-15 in making the right decision in the last 15 years (Hurley being the 1) and losers being presidents, trustees, ADs, coaches, and conference decisions.

 

[whaler11]

I guess NMSU could try and convince a Texas Sun Belt team to jump to CUSA in an offer with them. UTSA. Those leagues seem totally interchangable to me at this point though.

 

[whaler11]

Anyway, didn’t UConn have a consultant on the payroll for a while? You may know him as ‘Trained Geese’

I guess if a magic P5 invite came they could find the money to get out of the Big East but they can’t exactly be out lobbying in public after they just signed a deal saying they won’t put the football program in a P5.

 

[CL82]

Anyway, didn’t UConn have a consultant on the payroll for a while? You may know him as ‘Trained Geese’

I guess if a magic P5 invite came they could find the money to get out of the Big East but they can’t exactly be out lobbying in public after they just signed a deal saying they won’t put the football program in a P5.

...Or even talk about it until they join the NBE. (Of course, if there was an interest out there, hiring a consultant is a way around that.)

 

[Marbles90]

UConn needs to follow the Costanza strategy... come up with the best plan possible they can, then do the opposite. They are about 1-15 in making the right decision in the last 15 years (Hurley being the 1) and losers being presidents, trustees, ADs, coaches, and conference decisions.

But you are aware that chicken salad is not the opposite of tuna, right? Salmon is the opposite of tuna.

 

[huskyrob1]

This is sort of it. Like, sure, we could hire a consultant to try to get us into a conference OR we could like, schedule some teams to play next year instead.

Hey man, like OK. I think you're on to something. Groovy

 

[huskyrob1]

What is a consultant going to do, bribe someone, and FWIW it's not like they aren't doing their due diligence

I was lukewarm on the consultant idea in responding to Loyalfan's "let's be proactive" post. All I said was it couldn't hurt. Is doing nothing with no outside help a better solution? Maybe, but then again maybe not.

 

[whaler11]

...Or even talk about it until they join the NBE. (Of course, if there was an interest out there, hiring a consultant is a way around that.)

I don’t exactly have a ton of faith in these folks but the fact they joined the Big East should probably signal to people that the ACC isn’t calling...

 

[huskyrob1]

Anyway, didn’t UConn have a consultant on the payroll for a while? You may know him as ‘Trained Geese’

I guess if a magic P5 invite came they could find the money to get out of the Big East but they can’t exactly be out lobbying in public after they just signed a deal saying they won’t put the football program in a P5.

Who said anything about lobbying in public? Lol

 

[whaler11]

Who said anything about lobbying in public? Lol

whats the consultant going to do - jedi mind trick swofford? you can’t lobby the ACC without the Big East finding out.

 

[huskyrob1]

whats the consultant going to do - jedi mind trick swofford? you can’t lobby the ACC without the Big East finding out.

Yeah right, just like you can't lobby the Big East about joining in everything except football with out Aresco finding out while that is ongoing. When the whistle was blown about discussions taking place, Aresco didn't have a clue at that point.

 

[whaler11]

Yeah right, just like you can't lobby the Big East about joining in everything except football with out Aresco finding out before any public announcement. Lol

the big east had a reason to keep quiet. and if you really believe not mad aresco didnt know... people were posting it here...