Wright: Pavia video shouldn't be so easily washed away

Oct. 2—In light of the Animal House-on-steroids conduct of New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia that came to light last week, I have one question.

What would Dean Wormer have done?

Those who remember the 1978 slob comedy "Animal House" know Dean Vernon Wormer as the harried, hapless head of higher education at fictitious Faber College. Yet, harried and hapless as he was, he at least tried to discipline the lovable miscreants of Delta House.

That, of course, was a movie. In real life, mischief of the kind perpetrated by the heroes of "Animal House" — making toilets explode, stealing the answers to exams, peeking into the windows of sororities, etc., etc., is not funny — nor are the perpetrators at all lovable.

That goes for urinating on the artificial turf of your arch-rival school's Indoor Practice Facility, too.

In fact, it goes double.

On Sept. 24, KOB-TV aired a video of Pavia appearing to pee on the turf of UNM's IPF. Speaking for the program, New Mexico State assistant head coach Tim Beck said a couple of days later that such conduct was, well, frowned upon.

"We're disappointed in what happened. That's one of those things where we'll deal with him and deal with it internally and move on," Beck said. "You have high expectations for all your players. We're disappointed in his actions, disappointed in what happened, but it will be handled internally and then we'll move forward."

So that's it?

No public apology to UNM, either from Pavia, Aggies head coach Jerry Kill or the NMSU administration? No disclosure of what discipline will be meted out to Pavia?

Was Pavia sent to bed without his supper? Was he sent up to the blackboard and ordered to write "I will not pee on the other team's field" 100 times?

As for what punishment fits the crime, that's an interesting question.

My initial thought was a suspension, but Beck made it clear Pavia would take the field with his teammates when the Aggies take on Florida International in Las Cruces on Wednesday evening. (Wednesday? Welcome to Conference USA, NMSU.)

And, no, I now don't believe a suspension was merited. Pavia did not physically hurt anyone, or try to, as did the Louisiana Tech player who stomped on the head of a UTEP player in a game on Friday — appropriately drawing a suspension of indefinite length.

Pavia is not charged with a crime, though he certainly had no business doing his business in UNM's IPF — or even being there. If he exposed himself, it was only to whomever it was that took the video.

And, of course, Pavia likely had no idea that the video would ever be made public. Note to Diego: it's 2023. Everything goes public.

What motivated him? It's true that UNM didn't offer him a scholarship out of Volcano Vista — nor did New Mexico State — then offered only preferred walk-on status after he brilliantly led New Mexico Military Institute to a junior-college national championship in 2021.

But Pavia already had gotten payback of sorts, leading the Aggies to seven wins and a bowl victory last season while the offense-challenged Lobos were going 2-10.

Pavia didn't play in NMSU'S 21-9 victory over UNM in Las Cruces last season. The pee incident is believed to have happened prior to this fall's game, in which Pavia led the Aggies to a 27-17 win over the Lobos in Albuquerque. Maybe the 2022 game, Pavia not having participated, hadn't slaked his thirst for revenge.

Is such behavior typical of Pavia? The only previous controversy directly involving him stemmed from his transfer from St. Pius X to Volcano Vista, which cost him a year of high school eligibility. That's all. A state champion wrestler as well as a superb quarterback, he deserves the accolades he's received as an athlete.

Still, for the crude, disrespectful and just plain stupid behavior depicted in that video, he deserves to be disciplined. UNM, Albuquerque and everyone else — peegate not surprisingly became a national story — deserves to know what NMSU has done about that.

As of Monday afternoon, New Mexico State had not scheduled a football media opportunity in advance of Wednesday's game. There's no reason to believe the Pavia video has anything to do with that, since clearly it's over and done with as far as NMSU is concerned.

Many people, perhaps even most, might feel the same way. Move on, water under the ... well, you know.

But, no. The stain Pavia evidently left on the artificial turf at the IPF, and on himself, should not be so easily mopped up.