Aggies land elusive 12th game against Valparaiso

Nov. 30—New Mexico State's football team learned Tuesday its season was extended for one more game.

It's just not the game Aggies fans were hoping for, at least not yet.

The school announced the NCAA approved a waiver to allow Valparaiso to play NMSU in Las Cruces on Saturday, an exception that grants each team a 12th regular season game.

NMSU had been seeking an additional game against a Football Bowl Subdivision team for several weeks after its Oct. 22 contest against San Jose State was canceled following the death of a Spartans player in a traffic accident.

San Jose State finished its regular season 7-4 and is expected to receive a bowl bid when invitations are handed out this weekend. At 5-6, New Mexico State fell one win short of bowl eligibility.

The Aggies have had been to just one bowl game in the past 62 years, winning the 2017 Arizona Bowl.

NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia said Monday that he reached out to several schools to gauge their interest. All declined, as did nearly a dozen schools from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Valparaiso is an FCS school. Formerly referred to as NCAA Division I-AA, it is a rung below the FBS and its teams are limited to 11 games in the regular season. FBS teams can play as many as 12.

FBS teams can reach bowl eligibility with six wins, but no more than one can come against FCS opponents. New Mexico State already has a win over an FCS team (Lamar), rendering a victory over Valparaiso meaningless in terms of a magical sixth win.

Aggies coach Jerry Kill said everyone wanted to play NMSU when he first took the job last year. Seeing it as an easy win, schools were lining up to get a shot at the Aggies. Now that they've won five of their last seven and gained a measure of respect, the list of potential opponents is now gone.

"Now we can't get anybody to play us when we need to," he said. "Kind of unique and a little bit funny. I mean, when I got here they were lined up like club sandwiches to play us."

Moccia said NMSU has applied for a waiver from the NCAA to receive consideration ahead of teams who finished 5-7 when it comes to filling any available bowl bids.

Moccia said the motivation for getting Valparaiso on the schedule had to do with honoring the six-game home schedule for season ticket holders, for giving the program's veterans a Senior Day, and for providing an entertainment option for NMSU fans since Saturday was supposed to be the day the Aggies' basketball team hosted New Mexico at the Pan American Center — a game that was canceled in the wake of a recent deadly shooting on the UNM campus.

Saturday's game kicks off at 1 p.m. at Aggie Memorial Stadium.

All tickets purchased for the Oct. 22 game against San Jose State will be honored for this game.

Valparaiso went 5-6 overall, 4-4 in the Pioneer League.