New Mexico’s Bob Davie Was Fearful Football Would Be Cut
Football has struggled for New Mexico but it still helps pay the bills.
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No, Lobos football is not going anywhere
If you are not an avid New Mexico Lobo fan you may not have heard about their financial troubles and some shenanigans about not revealing everything it should as a state school.
The Lobos financial crunch is forcing them to cut four sports: men’s soccer, men’s and women’s skiing, and women’s beach volleyball. In addition to those cuts men’s track and field is decreasing its participation numbers while increasing opportunities for female sports, and there will be a phasing out diving from the women’s swimming and diving program.
During Mountain West football media days, New Mexico head coach Bob Davie was asked a generic question about his summer and answered quite unexpectedly.
First off, football is having issues in Albuquerque with some questioning its spending tactics, but Davie must be living in a fantasy land to honestly think if football was going to be cut. Football brings in money from TV deals and allotments from the College Football Playoff. It also allows the Lobos to stay in the Mountain West. Fair or not, football drives the bus even if teams are not competitive.
Just because there are those benefits does not mean football needs to be part of the discussion in helping balance the budget. The Albuquerque Journal discovered that the school spent between $20,353 and $24,996 in annual home hotel costs between the 2014 and 2016 seasons for the football teams.
So, there are places to cut the cost that football has, and it should be noted basketball stopped having players stay in hotels before home games two years ago as a cost-saving measure.
Geoff Grammer of the ABQ Journal sums this up nicely (and in other tweets everyone should check out) about football spending money and Davie not supporting the other sports.
