NMSU Board denies $1.1 million transfer: What’s next for NMSU athletics?

Following the Board of Regents’ decision Tuesday not to transfer $1.1 million from New Mexico State University’s academic fund to the athletic fund, the university’s athletic director outlined his plan for retaining coaches.

“You roll with the punches,” Mario Moccia told ABC-7. “Those coaches will be commodities. So, keeping coaches is a major priority for us.”

In the past decade alone, the university has lost three major basketball coaches to other institutions: Reggie Theus, Marvin Menzies and Paul Weir.

“We know we can’t pay a million dollars at New Mexico State,” Moccia said. “But the reality is, we can do more than what we’re doing now.”

The university’s basketball coach, Chris Jans, currently has a $250,000 base salary, not including performance incentives. Moccia said other institutions have already begun asking the cost of his buyout.

“When there’s smoke, there’s fire, and we must be proactive this time,” Moccia told ABC-7.

On Tuesday, nearly twenty members of faculty and staff said they adamantly opposed any transfer from academics to athletics. Instead, the regents voted to extend the repayment period on the athletic department’s $4.1 million deficit.

“In effect, our landlord said, ‘Hey, we’re going to extend your mortgage payment,” Moccia said. “That’s going to free up a significant amount of revenue that we’ll be able to spend.”

The athletic director said NMSU is one of only five universities in the country that has at least 25 men’s basketball wins and a football bowl win this academic year.

“We can’t strike out,” Moccia said.