New Mexico State reaches settlement with former men's basketball coach Greg Heiar

New Mexico State University and former men’s basketball coach Greg Heiar have reached a settlement to avoid future litigation.

NMSU and the state's risk management division will pay Heiar and his law firm $600,000 and Heiar has agreed to drop his wrongful termination suit, according to court documents. According to NMSU, the university will pay $120,000 and the New Mexico Risk Management Division will pay $480,000.

NMSU fired Heiar for cause in February 2023 after a hazing scandal rocked the program and forced the university to cancel its remaining games midseason.

When Heiar was fired, he was due to be paid $1.2 million — a $300,000 base annual salary for each of the next four years through the 2026-27 season.

In August 2023, he claimed he didn’t know about hazing allegations in his program and ultimately was a “sacrificial lamb” who was fired after an embarrassing year of high-profile incidents, according to arbitration documents obtained and reported on by ESPN.

NMSU hired Heiar in March 2022 to replace Chris Jans, who left to coach Mississippi State.

Heiar’s tenure as coach was marred early on when player Mike Peake left the team’s hotel with a gun the morning of the team’s rivalry game with the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Peake shot and killed UNM student Brandon Travis in self-defense after he was attacked, according to police. Peake was shot in the leg.

Travis’ family has filed a wrongful death suit against NMSU, Peake, Heiar and others that is still ongoing.

Following the shooting in November 2022, the men’s basketball team struggled on the court, finishing its season with a record of 9-15 and 2-10 in the Western Athletic Conference.

The season was cut short after the hazing allegations came to light.

The state of New Mexico agreed to settle a lawsuit for $8 million filed by two Aggies players who say they told their coaches older players had been hazing and sexually assaulting them all season and it was never stopped. Another hazing civil lawsuit brought by former NMSU basketball player Kyle Feit and two other players who have remained anonymous is set to go to trial in February 2026.

Feit addressed the Heiar settlement in a statement released by attorney Joleen Youngers on Friday.

“My confidence, career, and humanity were stripped from me because of what I was forced to experience on Coach Heiar’s team. I am deeply disturbed to see the settlement. As a victim of sexual and physical abuse, I live as a demoralized individual. I don’t know how NMSU saw it fit to reward an individual involved in this,” said Feit, who played just one year, the shortened 2022-23 season, at NMSU.

While Heiar claims NMSU withheld information about the hazing allegations from him, NMSU denies that and has said part of the reason for his being fired was he refused to cooperate with an internal investigation into the hazing.

Heiar’s Albuquerque-based attorneys — brothers Brett and Ryan Danoff of the Danoff Law Firm — released a statement Friday after the settlement was announced: “Coach Heiar is pleased that this matter is now fully and finally resolved to our satisfaction, and excited to continue his coaching career. Coach Heiar wishes NMSU, the men’s basketball program, and the Aggie fans all the best going forward.”

After he was fired from NMSU, Heiar returned to coaching at the junior college level. He guided Mineral Area College to a 29-3 record in the 2023-2024 season.

Last season, he lead Trinity Valley Community College to a 34-3 record and an NJCAA National Championship. Heiar was named NJCAA Division I men’s basketball coach of the year.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Aug. 19 to reflect how much each of two entities, New Mexico State and the New Mexico Risk Management Division, will be responsible for paying, per the settlement.