New Mexico State postpones fall football season, hopes to play in spring
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (BVM) — The list of college football teams that plan to compete in 2020 continues to dwindle.
Less than a month after New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham urged both of the state’s Division I universities to suspend contact sports this fall, FBS independent New Mexico State has announced that it will postpone its season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but hopes to play in the spring.
The Aggies join UConn, UMass and Old Dominion as individuals to pull the plug on the fall season. The New Mexico Lobos’ conference, the Mountain West, as well as the Big Ten and Pac-12, also postponed their seasons this week. In all, a total of 54 of 130 FBS teams now officially won’t be taking the field until 2021, and there could be more.
“This decision was not made lightly,” NMSU President John Floros said in an official school statement. “It was particularly hard for many of us who like college sports, and want to see our Aggies play. But by putting the safety, health and well-being of our student-athletes, our coaches and our staff fist, it became an easy decision to make.”
It was an inevitable decision because all of the prior postponements left only four games on NMSU’s schedule. It also would have been difficult for the Aggies to compete this year given the state’s current travel restrictions, which require anyone who leaves New Mexico to quarantine for 14 days after returning home.
The Aggies, who’ve gone 5-24 over the past two years after finishing 7-6 in 2017, were scheduled to open up this season at UCLA on Aug. 29.
“We will continue to monitor the college football landscape at a regional and national level while exploring the ability to play in the spring of 2021,” the statement read. “As difficult as this decision was for our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans who had hopes of competing and enjoying Aggie football in the fall of 2020, it is the hope of NM State athletics that we can find a safe way for all of those parties to enjoy football this spring.”
