Bruininthebay

Today's ESPN article about the AP poll ranking six different teams from the conference pretty clearly shows that the conference isn't 'garbage' but I agree that it doesn't appear to be the first or second best conference in the nation like it was generally considered fifteen years ago. The author of that ESPN article mentions '[Week 3 results] put the Pac-12 at 4-4 against the Mountain West this season.' You could interpret the implication of mentioning the record means the Pac 12 is bad but it can just as easily be interpreted as implying that the Mountain West is good, especially because MW schools have beaten Big Ten and SEC schools as well this year.

This is so +++++ing hilarious - How does the NCAA have standing? They are a private non profit corporation.

TOP PUBLIC NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES SDSU #68 Colorado State #79 Hawaii #79 Fresno State #101 New Mexico #105 Wyoming #109 Nevada #117 Utah State #123 _______________________ SJSU #7 public regional university in the west, overall #24 western regional university when you include the WCC schools, etc. New Mexico State #128 UCLA #1 public national university; #20 national university. Cal Sucks! (a win on Thanksgiving is really all we have to hope for now)

You would also be a Big West candidate with a men's soccer program as that is a staple of their conference, especially with a winning program. In men's soccer and baseball, the Big West is often as competitive as the Pac 12 in playoffs. ONLY if you are winning though and it's a big maybe. Hawaii will likely want to see something before travel subing you AND Portland State would likely need to get the conference expanding out of California first.

Who cares about the past really? A future without a NCAA division I men's soccer team in the entire state of New Mexico plus El Paso is a darker future than I care to live in. A future that likely doesn't include bowl eligibility in the next couple decades doesn't seem particularly bright either A future without Chip Kelly as UCLA's men's football coach ...

Major League Soccer expansion to ABQ?

Interesting. This article states the Athletic department owes the university $3 million and won't pay that off until 2026. I guess that might be the time frame when a decision could be made given the size of the debt. university leadership: "Because athletics received additional funding from the state this year, it was an opportunity to reduce the amount the university needed to transfer to the athletics budget. The university athletics team has done a great job and our hope is that with additional increases in revenue, including ticket sales, donations and other contributions, that unit will become less and less reliant on future budget transfers."

I'm only intending this as a discussion so please don't mistake anything I"m saying as an argument or as disrespect. I have a friend from undergrad who was a graduate student who now is a tenured professor at NMSU. I think you underestimate the potential of your soccer team; UCLA's men's soccer isn't huge attendance but it's on campus (!) and we compete against SDSU (soccer only in the Pac 12). A couple Final Four appearances in men's soccer would be a big deal and a crowds in the FCS football range could reliably happen - national championships might get you into FBS range.

The New Mexico Men's Soccer program tapped into local talent to compete at a level about equal to that of the Aggies current men's basketball program while you have to go to other states. It seems to me that as an institution you would want to be considered a top contender in the fields that you are in and compete where you are more likely to succeed

Your football program doesn't fund itself let alone other parts of the athletic department, per the Las Cruces Sun News.

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/05/new-mexico-high-school-football-participation/ Apparently the underlying recruiting base for high school football team are eroding in New Mexico more rapidly than other places. You need bodies to play body bag games.

Now that there is not a Men's Soccer program at New Mexico, is there a chance that New Mexico State drop football and add soccer/futbol ? I honestly think it would improve their prestige because it would instantly be the best collegiate team in the state and likely better than UTEP's club team. The Lobo men's soccer team was generally at the top tier of national competition so there is no reason to think that a team in Las Cruces wouldn't be able to tap into the same talent in New Mexico and perhaps recruit El Paso/Juarez better. If New Mexico State started a men's soccer team, they'd likely be seen as the top tier of that particular sport in their region rather than third tier to UTEP and New Mexico in football.

Averaging controls for variation; essentially that is why you can poll 800 people and project that onto an entire population. Every metric relies on data sets in some way and what is included in that data set varies. Certainly the journalist and coaches polls are far more flawed - see Washington's #23 ranking in week 3. Also, in weeks 5/6 when the Sagarin is largely based on this year's results there are generally not dramatic jumps in a specific team or conferences rank. Further, the Sagarin is sensitive enough to realize that UNLV is worse than SJSU already

I agree that specific numbers aren't reflective of this year's team. However, to look at divisions/conferences overall (similar aggregate variation per year) Sagarin ratings are fine.

The AAC and the MW have a good division and an ok division. The MAC and Sun Belt have an ok division and a bad division. CUSA has two bad divisions. https://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/2019/conference/ Based on Sagarin ratings the MAC EAST is overall slightly better than the West division of the MW (UNLV losing hurts that Sagarin score a lot and SJSU losing to Tulsa hurting less than you would think). If the Sun Belt East improved a bit, it could be the equivalent of the West division of the MW. 9 PAC-12-S (A) = 72.14 72.91 ( 9) 6 72.69 ( 9) 10 AAC WEST (A) = 71.03 70.85 ( 10) 6 70.87 ( 10) 11 MWC-MTN (A) = 68.17 67.84 ( 11) 6 68.12 ( 11) 12 AAC EAST (A) = 65.14 66.02 ( 12) 6 64.90 ( 12) 13 MAC-WEST (A) = 63.59 63.62 ( 13) 6 63.61 ( 13) 14 MWC-WEST (A) = 61.61 61.55 ( 14) 6 61.61 ( 14) 15 SUN BELT-E (A) = 60.73 61.29 ( 15) 5 61.18 ( 15) 16 I-A IND. (A) = 59.96 60.79 ( 16) 6 59.82 ( 16)