Will Webber: Aggies in New Mexico Bowl could save state's football pride
Dec. 3—Just when all seemed lost, the most unlikely of white knights came riding in to save face for the state's
college football collective conscience.
New Mexico State's successful bid seeking a waiver from the NCAA Football Oversight Council has made the Aggies bowl eligible for just the second time in more than six decades.
Yes, my friends, the Aggies are going bowling.
The Aggies.
That's not a typo.
That's the same NMSU team that started 0-4 and was 1-5 at the midway point. It's the same Aggies program that was relegated to the desolate wasteland of FBS independence after getting booted from the Sun Belt, the same outfit that's been forced to sell its soul to the "body bag" games and their seven-figure paydays to make ends meet.
Long regarded as one of the worst major-college programs in the country — not to mention one of the toughest geographical spots to recruit in the country — it's New Mexico State that has established itself as our gold standard for the sport. On Sunday, they'll officially learn where they're headed and who they'll be playing.
The fairytale ending would be a bid to the New Mexico Bowl. If there's any mountain movers out there, now's the time. The Albuquerque-based, ESPN-owned bowl has tie-ins to the Mountain West Conference and rival leagues like Conference USA, the MAC, Sun Belt and AAC. The Mountain West has seven bowl-eligible teams while the others have at least five.
Bowl projections have a blinding array of possible matchups, none of which have New Mexico State landing a spot in a game that would certainly draw a crowd big enough to rival anything the New Mexico Bowl has ever seen. The last time the Aggies went bowling was 2017 and NMSU fans showed up en masse at that year's Arizona Bowl for a stunning win over Utah State.
Having the crimson and cream get a landing spot in Lobo country would have the same effect — and, really, that would be a glorious site. UNM, the state's flagship school, the one with the better facilities, deeper pockets, a stable conference affiliation, a larger fan base, the hometown hero for a coach, and a city with more corporate dollars to be had, has become second fiddle to the team everyone in cherry and silver finds so easily dismissive.
The Lobos haven't been to a bowl game since 2016. This is NMSU's second appearance since then. This isn't UNM's state anymore, it's the Aggies'.
There are 41 bowl games with
82 spots for six-win teams. Buffalo's win Friday made them the 80th team in that mix. The Aggies are No. 81 regardless of what happens in Saturday's impromptu makeup game against Valparaiso in Las Cruces. A 5-7 team somewhere will land that final spot below them.
The most common projections for NMSU has it headed to either the LendingTree Bowl on Dec. 17 in Mobile, Ala., or the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl in Frisco, Texas, the same day.
If the powers who pull the strings at ESPN have anything to do with it, they'll find a way to get the Aggies to Albuquerque, giving New Mexico Bowl Executive Director Jeff Siembieda the dream team his bottom line so desperately needs. His game hasn't drawn a crowd of more than 20,000 since the 2018 matchup between North Texas and Utah State.
This is a game, after all, that was created to showcase Albuquerque and the rest of the state. To get a team from inside the borders to land one of those spots — particularly after the journey NMSU has taken the last few years — would be just what the New Mexico Bowl was designed to do.
The Aggies deserve this. The state wants it.
What's more, the New Mexico Bowl desperately needs it.
Do what you have to, people. Bring the Aggies to Albuquerque.
Will Webber is the sports editor at The New Mexican. Email him at wwebber@sfnew
