New NMSU President considers dropping football

Harry · May 9, 2013

NOTE: since the publication of this article, Carruthers was elected to the president post at NMSU

LAS CRUCES — Garrey Carruthers, one of five finalists for president at New Mexico State University, said during an open forum last week that he was open to the idea of moving the football team down to a lower division or perhaps even dropping the program all together.

Amidst discussion of academia, leadership and fundraising, Aggie athletics — particularly football — has also been an important topic during the presidential search. Two of the five candidates — Elsa Murano and Daniel Howard — will have their open-forum sessions early this week.

Carruthers sad he has already had discussions about dropping to a lower division in football.

"I've actually had conversations with people in the Big Sky Conference," Carruthers said, referring to a league in the Football Championship Subdivision. "That's sort of a notch below in football. They're not eligible for BCS bowls. But what do you think our prospects of getting (to) a BCS bowl anytime soon will be anyway? Not great. I think there's some other conferences around, where our athletics budget would actually be at the top of the list instead of at the bottom in terms of how much money we're spending."

Carruthers added, "I do know there's a limit to how much money we can spend. And that limit is probably what we're spending right now. We have to find a conference we're comfortable in financially."

Carruthers said during the public forum that he would also consider dropping football altogether.

"The rest of our sports are doing rather well, believe it or not," he said. "Maybe we should be a minor-sport (program) .... Somebody even mentioned to me yesterday, maybe we should drop football. Maybe one of the options is just stay the course and just join the Missouri Valley (Conference) and play all the sports they play. ... That's an option we need to take a look at. The most expensive sport is football, and probably the least successful at the moment."

Read more: http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_23123757/carruthers-tells-forum-participants-hes-open-dropping-football

NT91 · May 9, 2013

Go to hell!

UNT90 · May 10, 2013

Lol.

It doesn't even sound like he knows that there is FBS and FCS football.

And instead of committing to make it better, he would rather drop divisions to be successful. What a leader.

Great hire...

Edited May 10, 2013 by UNT90

LakeTravis · May 10, 2013

They should create a unique business major like Tijuanna Donkey Shows

untjim1995 · May 10, 2013

Lol.
It doesn't even sound like he knows that there is FBS and FCS football.
And instead of committing to make it better, he would rather drop divisions to be successful. What a leader.
Great hire...

Al Hurley likes this Carruthers fellow...

Seriously, the SBC is fine for them, both competitively and financially.

VideoEagle · May 10, 2013

Seriously, the SBC is fine for them, both competitively and financially.

Actually it's neither. They have greater travel for slightly less money and they didn't win in the much weaker SBC that they were formerly in. Everyone agrees the Belt has been getting stronger and NMSU has not.

I'm stunned at the reactions of their new President, but unless they step up they will be killed.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · May 10, 2013

He's not wrong. Remember, the AD said the head coach was meeting the goal of keeping the boys out of trouble and in class. That's the bar set at NMSU.

Look, I love NMSU. I've been out there twice. The reality of it is this: they play in the equivalent of what would be a high school stadium here. As far as athletics, its bread and butter has been men's basketball.

I really do love the campus. It is one of the schools I've taken one of our nephews to visit (the kid's dad split when my wife sister was pregnant with him, so I'm helping him with getting into college). The campus is nice. It's quiet and as unassuming as you can get.

I like the old rivalry we had with NMSU. While in law school, I had a classmate who had graduated from NMSU and we jawed back and forth every time they met during those seasons (2000-2002). As I recall, NMSU had a pretty good QB back then. We won every game, but to my recollection, they were all tight, within a touchdown every time.

They are tied with SMU for second as the team we've played the most, 33 times (SWT/Texas State has played us most, 39 times).

I really hate that NMSU has become what it has become in football. In four full seasons, DeWayne Walker has led them to a 10-40 record. Two of those wins versus Prairie View and Cal State-Sacto. Last season, UTSA thumped them 35-14 at Las Cruces, and Texas State crushed them 66-28 in San Marcos.

That is how far they have fallen. They had two winning seasons under Tony Samuel - 1999 and 2002 - and were competitive in the Belt. In 20 years, they've had only those two winning seasons under Samuel. Over the past 40 seasons, they've had four winning seasons - 1978, 1992, plus the two Samuel delivered.

There was a flicker of hope under Samuel. Hiring Hal Mumme was a ridiculous publicity stunt. And, they've already thrown up the white flag and set the bar at off the field classroom performance under DeWayne Walker.

We can deride their new president all we want; but, he's telling the truth here. NMSU isn't even trying to be competitive in football, so why stay at the most competitive level?