OPINION:Winning is worth It

March 25, 2025, and December 5, 2024, two dates that will forever reside in the collective consciousnesses of Lobo fans everywhere. These two days share nothing in common, except the eerily familiar way in which they demoralized a fanbase, city and state which have become accustomed to disappointment and feelings of rejection — especially when it comes to their beloved college sports. These days, after all, are the days which saw our undersized and underrecruited all conference point guard and quarterback — Donovan Dent and Devon Dampier — enter their names into the NCAA’s Transfer Portal to pursue bigger financial opportunities. These days also featured a crescendo of rumors and ultimately late-night announcements that our then coaches Richard Pitino and Bronco Mendenhall were themselves taking their talents (and coaching staffs) to greener pastures.

Like December, last week was a truly gutting week for many. The raw emotion to what many perceive as a rebuke of our imperfect community, challenged conference and financially limited athletics department is a cocktail of sadness, anger and hopelessness. Those feelings are normal and the challenges are real, but this article is for all those who are asking: “Why bother?”

Why bother buying tickets? Why bother donating to the Lobo Club? Why bother supporting our Name Image and Likeness (NIL) collective, 505SVF? Why bother caring if these players and coaches don’t care about us?

To that I ask: Why get out of bed every day? Why vote? Why pursue love? If you care, it matters.

As a born and raised New Mexican, I appreciate our state’s amazing attributes but also understand its long-standing challenges. Long ago I embraced an ideal embodied by this quote from 19th century minister William Watkinson’s “Invincible Strategy” sermon:

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

The success our Lobos and this community have shared the past couple years has made us all proud. New Mexico is on the map, and the star attraction isn’t “Breaking Bad.” That pride is worth a lot; for many Lobos like me it’s priceless. From a financial perspective, a recently completed economic impact analysis estimates the impact of Lobo Athletics to be $240 million per year for the city. All this despite having one of the smallest athletic budgets in the Mountain West Conference.

Recent years have brought seismic shifts in college sports with realignment, NIL, the transfer portal, eligibility changes and more. Change has been the rule of the decade, and news flash: change will continue. Our exclusion from the newly formed PAC-12 is a real challenge, but this betting man would bet on more realignment not less. The current model is unsustainable for a litany of reasons, but we don’t have a crystal ball. In an uncertain world we must root our strategy in what’s controllable. One thing is certain, success will be rewarded. Success sells tickets, drives revenues, elevates our brand and ultimately will determine our fate in the future.

How do we succeed? We invest. Plain and simple. All of us. We cannot achieve sustained championship-level results without investment. The state of New Mexico, the regents, President Garnett Stokes, and all of us must fully buy in because it’s worth it and it’s working. Fernando Lovo, our new and visionary athletic director along with his key leadership team Jalen Dominguez, Ryan Berryman, Amy Beggin and Kurt Roth, the founder of 505SVF, are as good as they come; trust that we’re in great hands. Whoever our new coach is may be the right man for the job but he won’t be a miracle worker. They need us. All of us.

I hope you’ll help us light the candle.