New Mexico's Criminal Investigation

The AG of New Mexico is attacking the University of New Mexico for not being fully compliant including the criminal and the deficit in the AD at New Mexico. You have head coaches both in football and basketball under investigation. Misuse of state funds for the University and the athletic department. Several sports are under recommendation to be dropped. Football is also on the table to be chopped. The regents have to clean up the act which they are having troubles. 9 out of the last 11 years, the university including the athletic department have misused state funds including the misused of state funds in football and basketball including spending on the boosters. MWC may have to find a replacement for New Mexico if they have to dropped a lot of sports to get back under the grace of the state's AG.

Another article on the AG will take legal action if UNM Do Not comply

UNM sports assessment to be out soon

Does not say if football and basketball are safe.

As an NMSU alum, I say great! The reality is that neither of those sports will be dropped. As much as I would love them to drop them.

Very misleading title. Sports are not on the chopping block.

It does look like some head are going to roll in the athletic department, and the football coach and AD could be among them. Otherwise some issues about spending money they should not be, so some forced cuts coming(they amount to about 4% of the budget, or $1.9M, if the AG complaint is acted upon). Other issues are about reporting and compliance with State law. But that is a long way from any sport being cut.

Don’t see much coming of this. Davie could be fired, his teams generally suck, and this gives them a good excuse to fire and not pay.


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(05-02-2018 11:29 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Very misleading title. Sports are not on the chopping block.

It does look like some head are going to roll in the athletic department, and the football coach and AD could be among them. Otherwise some issues about spending money they should not be, so some forced cuts coming(they amount to about 4% of the budget, or $1.9M, if the AG complaint is acted upon). Other issues are about reporting and compliance with State law. But that is a long way from any sport being cut.

The AD was just hired in September, so he's safe, but he's been instructed to have a list of which of their 22 varsity sports to cut by July 1 in order to repay the university nearly $5M beginning in fiscal year 2020.

The proposed budget reductions presented to the Trustees in mid-April wasn't good enough.
http://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-met...1112135220


NMFishbowl has covered all the university graft in great detail and was got the AG involved.

President says decision on UNM sports coming soon
https://www.abqjournal.com/1165382/stoke...-hall.html

Should be interesting!!! Men’s & Women’s basketball should be safe. If UNM wants to continue to be in the MW, football should be safe. If not, expect a conference change. I’m kinda surprised that the Mississippi AG’s office hasn’t done this with Ole Miss yet.

(05-03-2018 01:12 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  Should be interesting!!! Men’s & Women’s basketball should be safe. If UNM wants to continue to be in the MW, football should be safe. If not, expect a conference change. I’m kinda surprised that the Mississippi AG’s office hasn’t done this with Ole Miss yet.

would the mwc let unm stay as non-football member to balance out the number at 11???

then invite utep of nmst to get them to an even 12???

As delicious as the karma of NMSU taking their spot in the MW would be, nothing will come of this.

Skiing and Tennis would probably get the axe if any sports are cut. For Tennis, that would leave the Mountain West with seven men’s programs and ten women’s programs. If the conference objects to dropping women’s tennis, Beach Volleyball would likely get dropped instead.

(05-02-2018 11:29 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Very misleading title. Sports are not on the chopping block.

It does look like some head are going to roll in the athletic department, and the football coach and AD could be among them. Otherwise some issues about spending money they should not be, so some forced cuts coming(they amount to about 4% of the budget, or $1.9M, if the AG complaint is acted upon). Other issues are about reporting and compliance with State law. But that is a long way from any sport being cut.

Quote:The department also has failed to meet its annual budget projections in nine of the last 11 years and continues to operate with a massive multimillion-dollar deficit that now has university officials committed to cutting sports by July 1.

The thread title is a little vague. It does appear that at least some sports will be cut.

(05-03-2018 01:59 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  As delicious as the karma of NMSU taking their spot in the MW would be, nothing will come of this.

I agree! But I anticipate that if any, it will not football or basketball.

(05-02-2018 10:29 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Another article on the AG will take legal action if UNM Do Not comply

UNM sports assessment to be out soon

Does not say if football and basketball are safe.

Hahahahaha....yeah New Mexico is going to drop basketball when they’ve been top 25 in attendance for something like 51 out of the past 52 years. Even bad basketball years average 12 to 18k a game in fans. Most programs were give both nads to have that kind of basketball support. Hahahahaha

Yeah, not happening.

If UNM cuts any sports, should choose M soccer and W swimming. Those don’t affect the MWC.

Who gets the ax? Baseball? NM has put some money into their baseball field recently. It's a modest facility less than 1/2 mile from Isotopes Park. However, a local casino paid $1 million for 10 year naming rights. In Dec. 2016 they opened a $2.3 million clubhouse facility mostly through private donations. If they shut down baseball now they'll have really angry donors! (No university wants that). NM has been successful in baseball recently but not this year.

Skiing? The campus is just 15 miles to the Sandia Peak tram. NM tried to eliminate the team a year ago, faced a backlash (they've won nattys), and donors anted up $300,000.
Beach volleyball is relatively cheap to offer and helps to recruit players for regular volleyball.
At a MWC board several people thought that men's soccer (a C-USA affiliate) was likely to get cut- even though it is an excellent program.
If they drop men's tennis or golf, they might drop the women's side as well but they have to be careful of title IX. NM is like 45% male & 55% female.

Even if they drop M/W skiing, M Soccer, M/W tennis, does that get them to the $1.9 million figure that was reported to be required??
The final report is due July 1.
All this while record billion$$ flow into collegiate athletics.
The rich get richer, and the poor...
Will we recognize college sports 10 years from now?

*if* UNM decides they need to cut anything to make the budget, it'll be something like Men's Golf and Women's Swimming & Diving. That is how one deals with a shortfall due to Football and Basketball misuse of funds.

More likely they fire a coach and some staffers with cause and deny some bonuses, defer some projects a couple years, cut a few minor extras here and there, raise ticket prices 5%, and put on a one year salary freeze for everyone. In the interim the Chancellor loans the department $2M to be paid back over five years, and presto, you've closed a budget hole.

New Mexico has a $45M athletic budget, and the "problem" amounts to less than 4% of that budget. There is some indication that the AD is not running a tight ship as far as tracking finances and that is just grounds to fire them. Similarly the head coaches of Football and Basketball may lose some bonuses for failing to properly account for funds and in a case or two have misused them. I think things pretty much end there, with the institution placing more oversight on the athletic department and staffers as well as the AD getting replaced.

The notion that any sports will get cut is entirely premature and somewhat unlikely. Much easier to can a few people.

With 22 sports they sure have some wiggle room to make cuts.

They might have to also layoff an extensive coach or 2.

I just saw the story that Kirby Smart signed a $7 million per year deal at Georgia. Of course that's not exactly Harbaugh's $9 million or Saban's $11 million, but if he and his wife clip coupons and shop garage sales... they might make it.

Is college sports just a capitalistic enterprise that takes advantage of the university's tax exempt status and a low paid workforce? Is college football just NFL-lite?

Billions of dollars are flowing into college sports- but we don't see a level playing field. Some schools are being unfairly left behind in the P5 era. The left behind schools are cutting programs, reducing opportunities for students. Because of title IX, men's Olympic sports (track, swimming, wrestling, tennis, along with baseball) are being devastated in this time of unprecedented wealth.

If there was vision and will, the expanding pot of money could create expanding opportunities across the board. But the "system" is broken and is collapsing. In 10 years it will be a few dozen big state universities & Notre Dame. Now that we've had schools top the $200 million mark in revenue; which will be the 1st to $500 million? Who will be the first $20 million college football coach? Who will be the first $1 million a year college football player??

Oh well... now that I've vented I feel better. But this snowball is rolling downhill faster and faster and nothing seems to be able to stop it.
What will college sports look like in 10 years? Will it still even be college sports?
Darn shame for the kids who will find out their program is going to be eliminated.
You'd think institutions filled with bright people could do better than this.