UNM and NMSU athletic directors team up for presentation to legislative committee

Well known college sports junkie Bill Shakespeare once wrote, “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

In trying financial times in college athletics, it seems even Lobos and Aggies are willing to try to join forces.

Sitting side-by-side Wednesday in a conference room in the Las Cruces Convention Center, first-year University of New Mexico Athletic Director Fernando Lovo and first-year Acting New Mexico State University Athletic Director Amber Burdge gave a shared 30-minute presentation on the new financial challenges facing both schools’ athletics departments to the state’s Legislative Finance Committee.

While no specific ask was on the table and no specific promises were made, it was clear the state’s lawmakers have a willingness to help both universities raise revenue and compete for championships.

“I think there is strong committee support to strengthen recruitment and retention at all universities, and we know athletics are a big part of that,” LFC Chair Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, told the Journal, “With the state in a strong fiscal position, there’s an appetite to invest in these programs where the asks are reasonable, and to make sure our funding mechanisms are the best they can be for athletics at all our universities.”

Small carved out a full hour for both ADs to present on “The Future of New Mexico Division I Athletics.” He noted it was “important and exciting” to see them working together.

It was assumed Lovo would present, then Burdge would present — both touching on how conference realignment, revenue sharing with college athletes and financial challenges in general were affecting their respective departments. Instead, the two gave one presentation.

Lovo, who spent some of his first months in Santa Fe getting a crash course on state legislature, has said since he arrived that he believes the two schools working together is beneficial, and thought this was a good opportunity act on that.

“Let’s come into this unified,” Lovo told the Journal of his decision to ask Burdge if she’d be willing to present together. “We’ve been asked to come talk about the future of Division I athletics in New Mexico, so let’s do this together as the representatives of that and articulate our needs, our case and our challenges together because we’re facing similar situations.”

Burdge added the presentation “underscores the value of collaboration as we both work to strengthen opportunities for student-athletes across the state, while still celebrating a healthy rivalry” and that the “discussion left me encouraged” about future assistance from the state

Both the athletic revenues at UNM and NMSU are below average compared to their respective conference members.

UNM’s fiscal year 2024 athletics budget presented to the NCAA was $54 million, which is $14.7 million below the average budgets of the teams that were in the Mountain West and the two Pac-12 schools in 2024.

Last year, five MW schools decided to defect and join Oregon State and Washington State to start a new version of the Pac-12. Their hope is to get a large media rights deal and lower-resourced schools, particularly ones with underperforming football programs, could hurt that campaign. UNM was deemed a financial liability and left out

The gap between NMSU’s FY24’s budget, $40 million, and the Conference USA average is only $2 million, but it was also reported Wednesday by Burdge that NMSU athletics is expecting about a $6 million deficit this fiscal year.

Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque, a longtime supporter of Lobo athletics, addressed both schools having relative below-average funding.

“When you say we have a $15 million gap (for UNM), I think over the next several years, that gap will only continue to grow and we will struggle,” Tobiassen said. “And we have one of the best universities, I think, in this country, with such an amazing and rich culture that we deserve to really take a deep look at this topic and figure out, how do we support UNM athletics, specifically football? And the same with New Mexico State.”

She added that $2 million for NMSU was “really nothing” in the grand scheme of the state’s budget and even the $15 million gap for UNM isn’t a huge ask, either when considering her belief that it would impact the students and “our communities at large.”

LFC Vice Chair Sen. George K. Muñoz, D-Gallup, noted UNM this past year raised student fees and estimates an additional $1.6 million this coming fiscal year and $2.5 million in the next — fees that the state’s Opportunity Scholarship will cover for a large number of the affected undergraduates. He said that means UNM already got some state money.

Muñoz also noted that NMSU “needs to figure out” out how to run its department without a deficit and that it needs to quit harming itself, specifically indicating “NMSU had made some mistakes when (former football coach Jerry) Kill left and they lost Diego (Pavia) and some other players” in recent years. Such “self-inflicted” problems make LFC helping the department out “a waste of our money. It’s a waste of our time.”

Moving forward, Rep. Meredith A. Dixon, D-Albuquerque, asked for economic impact data on how successful college athletics might help the communities and state at large — themes alluded to throughout the presentation.