Then the next day New Mexico State held their own collegiate football game with a crowd of about 10,000 fans. I am a fan of both high school and college football. So I enjoyed the Las Cruces High Mayfield game and then the NMSU/Boston College football game the next day. There was one thing I did not enjoy.
During a call-in show that followed the Aggie game a listener questioned NMSU selling losses, indicating this practice was not appropriate. Selling losses means taking on national powerhouses for cash which the powerhouses gladly pay to have a week off from their grueling schedule.
Powerhouse teams pay for a patsy to come get beat up while they rest. The patsy takes the cash and calls it good. The caller was told NMSU selling losses would continue a few more years with NMSU perhaps selling three losses next year for financial reasons.
I have always opposed the ethically bankrupt practice of selling losses by NMSU. This has been for at least thirty years. In that time I have written dozens of columns of protest. Each time the answer is that NMSU just needs to do it another year or two. But that has turned into three decades of no success for the program.
Last year NMSU was tossed out of the Western Athletic Conference and there has been a vigorous effort to close the football program. I have resisted all calls to end NMSU Aggie Football. In the last three decades I have had season tickets every year and gone to almost every game.
But, selling losses every year for thirty years has imperiled Aggie football and not brought any success to the program. It is insane to continue doing what has not worked. Football programs are judged by three criteria: win/loss record, attendance and Bowl Games. Selling losses loses in all three categories.
NMSU holds the record for how long it has been since going to a Bowl Game. Several of the years that NMSU was selling losses would have been Bowl Game years but for those sold losses. Also know that NMSU did not sell any losses the years they went to the Sun Bowl or they would not have been invited.
Frankly, selling losses must stop now. Do not sell losses next year or perhaps lose the program. When NMSU sends student athletes into harm’s way not to win games, rather, to get money selling the loss, NMSU announces to the world they are losers. Each year NMSU makes selling losses seem like there is no urgency for win-loss records or Bowl Games in NMSU’s football program.
With more than thirty years of data on this approach, we are certainly equipped to answer the question: how well does it work? It has been a complete disaster chewing up many fine coaches and programs over the years. NMSU has not had a truly successful season while they were engaged in selling losses.
I always thought someone in the leadership would at some point in the more than thirty years say, “Been there, done that, let us try something different.” For thirty years NMSU has sold out the win-loss record and not sold out the stadium. They have sold out their Bowl Game aspirations. The fans have stayed away. Yes, there are hard core fans, myself included, who come faithfully despite, “Rain or dust or gloom of defeat.”
Now the money is important if we are to continue the employment of all of the people who work in the Athletic Department. But does the tail wag the dog in this endeavor? Is it acceptable to maintain that employment by selling out the program?
I agree the football program needs more money. However, if we must have benefit car washes, bake sales, kissing booths, rent-a-dog for a day, home delivery of cow-chips… whatever… we should do what it takes to not ever sell losses again.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
