Will Rio Grande Rivalry return to being a home-and-home?

Saturday night’s Rio Grande Rivalry men’s basketball game brought an announced crowd of 8,106 to the Pan American Center — the most fans for a nonconference game in New Mexico State’s arena in more than a decade.

In 2023 and 2024, the 15,411-seat Pit was sold out when NMSU came to town. UNM has not sold out the Pit against any other nonconference opponent since December 2013.

For NMSU and UNM, the game against their in-state rival almost always guaranteed the best home gate of nonconference play, if not the entire season.

The rivalry used to be a home-and-home, played once in Las Cruces and once in Albuquerque each season. Two years ago, the schools agreed to drop the rivalry down to once a year, with the schools rotating home games. That agreement is now expired, but there is still no guarantee that the series will return to the more fiscally-responsible, albeit not-so-coaching-friendly approach of the past.

But there is hope.

“Even though there isn’t a plan in place right now, I’d be open to bringing back the tradition of a home-and-home series each year,” recently hired New Mexico State University Athletic Director Joe Fields said. “It’s clear how important this matchup is to both the Las Cruces and Albuquerque communities, and I want to make sure we do what’s right for both schools and their fan bases.”

First-year UNM Athletic Director Fernando Lovo said he’s also “open” to the idea, but like Fields is so-far uncommitted to making it happen.

“We’re continuing to have conversations both at the conference and institutional level about the best overall schedule composition moving forward for our men’s basketball program,” Lovo said, noting that the Mountain West’s new structure starting next year has led to some uncertainty about how many league games they will play each season, which would also affect the nonconference schedule.

“Our goal is to find the right balance between positioning ourselves for at-large success, providing an exciting home schedule for our fans, and supporting the continued growth of our program and revenue opportunities,” he said.

The rivalry game helps both schools build their postseason résumés (some fans like to suggest it’s not, but the computer metrics prove otherwise).

So why have the coaches at both schools for years pleaded not to play the series twice a season?

“From a coach’s standpoint, you know, it’s pretty draining,” NMSU coach Jason Hooten said on Saturday, even amid the adrenaline rush of having just beat the Lobos for the second consecutive season. “It’s tough to play. You know, if you had to turn around and play each other again next Saturday, that’d be a tough game to play. There’s also not anybody in the country that plays each other twice as a rival, so that’s another reason why we didn’t do it, and it was something Coach (Richard) Pitino — we both agreed not to do it.”

But the decision to play a home game guaranteed to bring in revenue might be more vital now than ever. Especially in NMSU’s case, when rival UTEP leaves Conference USA for the Mountain West next season.

“We’ve got a really good athletic director that’s going to make really good decisions, and if he feels like (playing UNM) is something that we need to do twice, then I’m going to be all on board with whatever he wants to do,” Hooten said. “And I think that New Mexico feels the same way about their athletic director and his decision making as well.”