New Mexico State Will Try to Survive in FBS as Independent

They haven't been to a bowl game in 55 years and have had only three winning seasons in recent history.  And, after 2017, they won't have a conference to play in.

But New Mexico State isn't throwing in the towel

It was announced yesterday the Aggies will play as an FBS Independent after the 2017 season.

The story, reported by Jason Graves of the Las Cruces Sun-News, states an 18 member committee was formed last month to decide whether to play as an FBS Independent or drop to the FCS and join a conference.  The Big Sky Conference, which plays in the FCS, was considered to be an option for the Aggies if they had chosen to drop down one classification.

The story quotes Board of Regents chair Debra Hicks as saying the Regents will not vote on this as an action item, but rather will reaffirm a 2013 resolution which stated NMSU was going to stay the course as an FBS program.

The Aggies will play two, and perhaps three guarantee (money) games per season, according to the report.  In today's structure, those games, in which a school travels to a Power 5 conference school in exchange for money, pays 1.2-1.5 million dollars per game.

New Mexico State's other sports participate in the Western Athletic Conference, a league that formerly sponsored FBS football, but is now made up of schools around the country that are fairly new to Division I.  It's membership is considered unstable and NMSU is exploring options of joining another league.  The Horizon League, made up of mostly schools from the Midwest, is considered to be a possibility.