Aggies to try something different with Rio Rancho game

Aggies to try something different with Rio Rancho game

NMSU’s Marvin Menzies has guided the Aggie men to their first outright league regular season title since 1994. He hopes they can boost their status this week. (AP Photo/John Miller). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

First, the Aggies host Grand Canyon tonight in a matchup of the Western Athletic Conference co leaders. For that reason it probably the biggest meaningful game of season against somebody not wearing Lobo or Miner jerseys.

Second, the Aggies host Utah Valley on Saturday. A win tonight won mean so much if the Aggies fail to hold serve in two days.

Then the next game that could be the biggest of them all, in a sense.

Yes, it on a Monday. Against a middling NAIA team, Northern New Mexico. To take place at the Santa Ana Star Center, in the far reaches of Rio Rancho.

Now, is it ideal to rouse the NMSU players for what will be nearly a 500 mile round trip to play a game? Doubtful.

New Mexico State, however, is trying something different to engage or perhaps even resuscitate a fan base from the metro area northward.

is going to be our biggest pocket of alums from now until the end of time, said second year athletic director Mario Moccia, himself a former Aggie. And the target market is the alumni who haven made their way to Las Cruces for an athletic event in some time. They might see the Aggies play football when the Lobos host them at University Stadium, but that happens only in odd years. And tickets for the annual NMSU UNM men basketball game at the Pit can be a tough get.cheap nfl jerseys

People who live in Albuquerque grumble about the drive out to the Santa Ana Star Center. But it a half hour, not the three hours it takes to Las Cruces.

And so NMSU paid $12,000 to rent the Santa Ana Star Center for Monday night game. It selling tickets for as much as $50, actually are selling really well, Moccia said, and as low as $5. If sympathetic fans can make it Monday but want to help, Moccia suggest buying $5 tickets that NMSU will redistribute to elementary school kids.

First things first: By sometime Thursday night, we all know if the WAC has a new bully, the role that the Aggies have played for several years.

Grand Canyon (19 3, 6 1) already might have made it happen. Even though it can yet compete in the WAC tournament or go to the NCAAs while it undergoes its transition period into NCAA Division I, GCU certainly is the envy of the rest of the league.

Grand Canyon is also the runaway WAC leader in attendance for league games. The Lopes draw 6,329 per league game. The rest of the league: 2,073, per GCU figures. The Aggies prop up that number with 4,399 announced per game.

In the first matchup of the season, the Lopes (they don bother with the ‘Ante defeated the Aggies (14 8, 6 1) 79 75 in Phoenix. NMSU coach Marvin Menzies called it 25 atmosphere on the Lopes home floor. Meanwhile, as he heads his school most marketable athletic product, he nonetheless often finds himself beseeching fans to come out to the Pan Am.

A frenzied atmosphere might materialize tonight in Las Cruces. It won on Monday, not without students, but it could bring something different. NMSU President Garrey Carruthers is scheduled to be there. It is a chance for Aggies to be around the other Albuquerque Aggies.

Moccia mentioned the recent the Pan Am 2.0 promotion that resulted in a school record 5,034 for an Aggie women game. we can keep our gimmicky streak alive on Monday, he said.