NMSU Seeking Options; Idaho Looks to Big Sky

LAS CRUCES — Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said Monday morning that an invitation to New Mexico State for inclusion into the league “has not even been discussed.”

Benson has said in past interviews that the Sun Belt would look inside their geographic footprint, currently from Florida to East Texas, before looking to expand outside of that region.

On Sunday, an Appalachian State University athletics internet blog indicated that NMSU and Appalachian State would receive invitations into the Sun Belt.

Benson said Monday that expansion west of Texas “has yet to be discussed,” and added such conversation likely wouldn’t take place until the conference holds its Board of Directors and Athletics Directors Meetings on May 22.

New Mexico State currently looks to be without a football-playing home for the 2013-14 season, with Idaho and NMSU the only football-playing institutions scheduled to be in the Western Athletic Conference at that time.

Idaho is having discussions about rejoining the Big Sky Conference. Such a move would drop Idaho from the Football Championship Subdivision.

The Sun Belt — a conference the Aggies were formally affiliated with, and with Benson being the former WAC commissioner — seemed like a possible landing spot, although not a sure thing at this point.

Perhaps if the Sun Belt decided to expand to a 12-team football conference for the 2013-14 season it could open a door for the Aggies.
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal