Former New Mexico State AD Mario Moccia tapped to lead Mizzou's third-party NIL agency

Former New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia has been hired as the CEO of Missouri’s “Every True Tiger Brands,” the agency announced Thursday. 

The 58-year-old will oversee revenue sharing efforts and distribution for Mizzou athletes with Tiger Brands, the university’s designated third-party NIL agency. He most recently served as a consultant for CaringCent, a college athletics fundraising company, after NMSU fired him with cause in January 2025. 

Moccia told the Journal he was not looking for a new role, but was instead approached by members of Mizzou’s athletic department to gauge his interest in the Tiger Brands position. The role is largely focused on donor outreach and providing Tiger student-athletes with NIL opportunities, and will require him to relocate to Columbia, Missouri. 

“I went out there and met with everybody — basketball coaches, football coaches, general managers, the whole nine yards,” he told the Journal. “And I said, ‘hey, this is something I would have an interest in.’” 

While noting he’ll have to get adjusted to the scale of Mizzou’s NIL efforts, Moccia added he has “tremendous familiarity” with the Tigers’ donor base after serving as an associate AD for the school from 1998-2006. He left his first tenure with the school to serve as a first-time AD at Southern Illinois before taking over at his alma mater in 2015. 

In his decade-long tenure with the Aggies, Moccia oversaw steady on-field success, fundraising wins and helped steer the school into Conference USA, but was fired for cause after a report from the New Mexico Department of Justice criticized him after hazing and sexual assault allegations rocked NMSU’s men’s basketball program. 

The report, which details the DOJ’s investigation into misconduct under former men’s basketball coach Greg Heiar, faulted Moccia for not doing enough after reporting hazing allegations to the school’s Office of Institutional Equity. Released in December 2024, the 70-page document was cited by NMSU President Valerio Ferme in his decision to move on from Moccia, a decision he said was his alone. 

Moccia filed a wrongful termination suit against the university in November seeking payment of the $1.4 million remaining on his deal and other contractual stipulations. It notably does not argue that Moccia could not be fired, but argues the circumstances of his dismissal violated his contract. 

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.