NMSU Conference Update

[gradnmsu]

I think Chancellor Carruthers and Mario are keeping the pulse what is going to happen with conference realignment.  Everyone is waiting for biggest domino with the Big XII to fall.  I believe that Big XII will change soon.  

[CrimsonPhantom]

[PanAmManiac]

Pretty much sums up what I've been saying all along re: FCS. We would lose out on a lot of income via the money games which would more than offset the savings in coaching strategies. Also, beware of the "we can have a winning FCS team" mentality. Recruiting and winning at the FCS level will be no different than doing the same at the FBS level. Not mentioned in the report are:
- The impact of never again playing our rivals at home - always our biggest attendance game of the year.

- Reduced advertising money. I don't have numbers to throw at this but I'd wager a healthy sum that advertisers/sponsors would be harder to come by, and the "big name" sponsors of the world would be willing to spend less on us as an FCS school.

- Overall impact on school enrollment by being FCS vs FBS. Again, I have no numbers, just a hunch that losing FBS status would affect the University in enough intangible ways to hit the pocketbook one way or another.

[PanAmManiac]

Does this Horizon League rumor have any legs, or is it just speculation or wishful thinking by a few NMSU admins at this point? The more I think about it, the more I think we would have to take the invite if it was offered. But I have seen nothing out there about NMSU being a candidate for an invite, or any speculation about it.

I did do a little research on the Horizon as I knew little about it other than names and locations of schools. It's a pretty interesting mix, including small schools like Valparaiso and Detroit Mercy (around 4,000 enrollment) and Wisconsin-Milwaukee which is 50K plus (although I'm guessing a lot of commuter and/or online students). I always thought Oakland was another small private school but it's actually a huge public school. We'd be about in the middle of the pack in terms of school size. Culturally, if you take away Valparaiso and Detroit Mercy we're probably a much better cultural fit in the Horizon than in the WAC. It's just the geography is a little strange with everyone else being in Indiana / Wisconsin / Illinois / Kentucky. I see some pretty brutal road trips there. And the Horizon has 10 schools already so someone else would have to go in with us to make a 12 team league (UMKC as a travel pair?).

[CrimsonPhantom]

May 16, 2016 10:59:19 GMT -7 PanAmManiac said:

Does this Horizon League rumor have any legs, or is it just speculation or wishful thinking by a few NMSU admins at this point? The more I think about it, the more I think we would have to take the invite if it was offered. But I have seen nothing out there about NMSU being a candidate for an invite, or any speculation about it.

I did do a little research on the Horizon as I knew little about it other than names and locations of schools. It's a pretty interesting mix, including small schools like Valparaiso and Detroit Mercy (around 4,000 enrollment) and Wisconsin-Milwaukee which is 50K plus (although I'm guessing a lot of commuter and/or online students). I always thought Oakland was another small private school but it's actually a huge public school. We'd be about in the middle of the pack in terms of school size. Culturally, if you take away Valparaiso and Detroit Mercy we're probably a much better cultural fit in the Horizon than in the WAC. It's just the geography is a little strange with everyone else being in Indiana / Wisconsin / Illinois / Kentucky. I see some pretty brutal road trips there. And the Horizon has 10 schools already so someone else would have to go in with us to make a 12 team league (UMKC as a travel pair?).

NMSU postponed a visit by the Big Sky when the Horizon said they would like to visit. It was reported by Groves.

[PanAmManiac]

It's just curious to me that it's only been reported by Groves. Typically, any small sniff of conference expansion or movement these days and the media is all over it, or at very least the fan boards. I've seen zero mention of this outside of Las Cruces.

[CrimsonPhantom]