FBS Pauper NMSU Makes ‘Outside the Box’ Play for State Funds

While the wealthiest college athletic departments are reconnoitering with private capital these days, one of the least-resourced FBS schools, New Mexico State University, is pursuing a unique proposal with a more traditional funding source: the public kitty. 

Ahead of next year’s legislative session, the Aggies, who compete in Conference USA, have presented New Mexico legislators with the idea of creating a $137 million endowment to help fund its women’s sports programs.

While the endowment’s principal would remain with the state, NMSU athletics would receive about $5 million to $6 million in the annual income it produces, according to the proposal. Alternatively, NMSU is asking for a one-time appropriation of $27.5 million, to help float its women’s athletics programs for five years.

It’s a bold idea, and one that NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia says is timed to two contrasting financial dynamics. In light of the proposed House v. NCAA settlement, the already-distressed Aggies have been forced to quickly come up with a plan that would address millions of dollars in increased expenses while the school’s annual share of NCAA distributions are reduced.

For the 2022-23 academic year, NMSU’s athletics spending of $37.15 million ranked 92nd out of 110 public FBS universities. Over that same period, the university reported receiving $6.75 million in revenue from governmental appropriations, ranking it eighth among that cohort.

The Aggies have long teetered on the tipping point of ’s top subdivision, eschewing pressures over the years to call it a day and drop down to FCS.

Meanwhile, the state of New Mexico, despite being among the poorest in the nation, has recently enjoyed a budget boom thanks to near-record oil and natural gas prices since the pandemic. Oil and gas revenues in the state have more than quadrupled in the five-year span from 2018 to 2023. Typically, New Mexico earns about $4 billion in direct revenue from energy production, primarily through drilling and property taxes, which funds at least a quarter of the annual state budget. However, in the fiscal year 2023, those revenues exceeded $5 billion, after a 162% year-over-year increase.

“We are sitting on a significant amount of one-time money,” Moccia said in a phone interview Saturday. “So this year, seeing as the state had so much funding, we said, ‘Hey, let’s think outside the box.’”

In effect, the endowment proposal would be an augmentation of the annual money the state already gives to the Aggies. Unlike many other states, New Mexico’s legislature directly appropriates operating revenue to the athletic departments of its two FBS schools, NMSU and the University of New Mexico.

The next legislative session commences Jan. 21 and runs through March 22. A hearing for final approval of the House settlement is slated for April 7.

How confident is Moccia in his big ask?

“Nobody has said this is a terrible idea,” he said. “It has been out in the public, there are articles about it, a lot of our legislators have talked about it. So hopefully you go into the [legislative] session with some momentum.”

Earlier in the year, Moccia led a delegation of NMSU female athletes to lobby on behalf of the endowment proposal.

“I think it is brilliant that the athletic department is being proactive in this space,” Aggies women’s basketball coach Jody Adams told the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News.

In addition to the endowment, NMSU is also pursuing athletic department monies from the bursting pork barrels of individual legislators. “Each state representative or state senator is a potential millionaire donor,” Moccia said.