UNM spent $27,860 on rings for football
School commemorated shared division crown, bowl victory
It is common, if not standard, procedure for college football programs to reward their players with commemorative rings after conference titles and bowl victories.
The New Mexico Lobos have done both. In April, UNM players received rings for their New Mexico Bowl victory over UTSA and for the Mountain West Conference Mountain Division title the Lobos shared with Wyoming and Boise State.
According to information provided by UNM sports information, the rings were paid for from the school’s bowl payout at a cost of $27,860: 140 rings at $199 per ring.
NCAA bylaws allow member schools to spend $400 per athlete on awards for bowl games, $325 per athlete for conference championships.
The payout for each participating team in the New Mexico Bowl was a reported $456,200, but that and other bowl payouts involving Mountain West teams go to the conference and — less expenses — are shared equally by conference teams.
There’s typically not much profit there, but the saving grace is the approximately $17 million the Mountain West is expected to receive from the College Football Playoff. That revenue also is shared among the membership.
Mountain West teams known to have given their players commemorative rings following the 2016 season are San Diego State, for its MWC championship, and Air Force, for the Falcons’ Arizona Bowl victory over South Alabama.
NEW LOBO: Chris Estrella, an offensive
lineman from Mt. San Jacinto College in California, has committed to play for UNM. Estrella made the announcement on Twitter.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 288 pounds, Estrella was a freshman at Mt. San Jacinto last fall and was an academic qualifier out of San Jacinto High School. He’ll have four years in which to play three seasons at UNM.
In December and in February, UNM signed 21 players to letters of intent. The allowable limit is 25. Since then, Estrella, running back Zahneer Shuler (Lackawanna College, Scranton, Pa.) and punter J.T. Mitchell (Good Counsel High School, Baltimore) have announced they’ve committed.
LINDY’S: New Mexico is picked to place fourth in the Mountain Division this fall by Lindy’s College Football Magazine. The predicted order of finish: 1. Boise State; 2. Wyoming; 3. Colorado State; 4. New Mexico; 5. Air Force; 6. Utah State.
Earlier, Street & Smith’s picked the Lobos fifth. Athlon magazine picked them third.
Lindy’s ranks New Mexico 70th among the NCAA Football Bowl Division’s 130 teams and fifth in the Mountain West behind Boise State (24th), Wyoming (44th), San Diego State (51st) and Colorado State (68th).
Defending league champion San Diego State was Lindy’s pick to win the West Division, followed by Hawaii, San Jose State, UNLV, Fresno State and Nevada.
Two Lobos, junior running back Tyrone Owens and senior defensive end, Garrett Hughes, made Lindy’s all-conference first team. Center Blaise Fountain, offense guard Aaron Jenkins, kicker Jason Sanders and punter Corey Bojorquez were second-team picks.
New Mexico State, playing its final season in the Sun Belt Conference is picked to finish ninth in the league and is ranked 119th nationally.
SENTINEL: New Mexico is ranked 77th in this year’s Orlando Sentinel college football countdown. Last year, UNM was 88th.
The countdown starts at the bottom and works its way up. Nine Mountain West teams have already been ranked: Fresno State (123), Utah State (117), UNLV (113), San Jose State (103), Air Force (98), Hawaii (96), Colorado State (94), Nevada (84) and UNM, meaning only three MWC teams — Boise State, San Diego State and Wyoming, not necessarily in that order — will be ranked ahead of New Mexico. New Mexico State is ranked 128th. And is it never too early for bowl projections? The Sentinel has the Lobos playing old nemesis Brigham Young in the Arizona Bowl on Dec. 30. It projects a New Mexico Bowl matchup between Boise State and Old Dominion on Dec. 16.
IN THE CLASSROOM: UNM football’s cumulative spring-semester grade-point average of 2.76, released this week, was the fourth-highest in program history. That figure is up from the fall (2.69), down slightly from last spring (2.80, the highest for the program since 2003).