How it came to this: The elimination of four UNM sports

March 27, 2018: Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron writes to UNM that the university must submit by May 1, 2018 a plan for correcting the athletic department’s deficit.

April 10, 2018: With $4.7 million in debt accumulated over a decade, UNM Athletics announces a plan to eliminate more than one sport, but doesn’t detail which. The university’s Board of Regents ultimately approves a plan to cut $1.9 million from the athletic budget for fiscal year 2020.

July 18, 2018: Citing the deficit, costs but also Title IX concerns, UNM Athletics announces a recommendation to eliminate men’s soccer, men’s and women’s skiing and (women’s) beach volleyball to be effective July 1, 2019.

July 19, 2018: The Board unanimously approves the proposal.

Aug. 8, 2018: The state Attorney General’s office says the Regents’ decision to cut the sports occurred in violation of the state’s open meetings law and could be invalid.

Aug. 17, 2018: Yielding to AG Hector Balderas, the Regents meet again — and vote 7-0 to cut the four sports.

September 2018: Gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham vows to reinstate the sports if she is elected.

February 2019: A House budget bill proposes a boost of the state’s general-fund appropriation for UNM Athletics to $4.6 million — up from $2.6 million and more than the $4.1 million UNM requested — on the condition that the four slashed sports be reinstated for 2019-20.

March 2019: UNM fires back in defense of its decision — saying the $2 million offered in the House bill would not cover the costs to keep the sports long term, and that “there was no way to become Title IX compliant without reducing sports,” UNM President Garnett Stokes said.

March 2019: The state Senate eventually strips out budgetary language in the House Bill requiring the return of the sports in order to receive funding, decrying the approach as “micromanaging.”

May 9, 2019: A new Board of Regents approves a budget of $32 million for FY 2020 for UNM athletics that projects a $1 million shortfall, even with a $32 million budget that has four fewer sports to operate as of July 1. Regents decide to funnel $1.2 million to Athletics for its debt service payment on the Dream-style Arena — the Pit renovation.