NMAA reveals 2021 spring football schedule

Openers are to be held March 5 or 6

Football-playing high schools and their fan bases across the state at last can mark their calendars as the spring schedule was announced Wednesday afternoon by the New Mexico Activities Association.

There are 10 games scheduled around the state Friday night, March 5. The only school in the metro area playing that day is Moriarty, which visits Portales.

An additional 19 games are on the slate on Saturday afternoon, March 6. The first regular-season game to kick off in the metro area is Hope Christian at Albuquerque Academy, at 1 p.m. March 6.

St. Pius is at Alamogordo, and Menaul goes to Fort Sumner, also on that Saturday. Outside the metro area,

featured Week 1 matchups include Hobbs at Clovis, and the Eddy County War in Carlsbad between the Cavemen and Artesia.

Not everyone that is playing football has a Week 1 game. Indeed, there are 42 games on the schedule in Week 2, which is 13 more than opening week. A total of 85 schools are playing, NMAA associate director Dusty Young said. Usually, there are about 125 teams.

“It was a very complex project, that’s for sure,” said Young. Ordinarily, schools do their own football scheduling, but this season it is being handled by the NMAA. “The biggest issue was trying to figure out when schools could start based on their hybrid model and making sure we scheduled them appropriately.”

The maximum number of games allowed for this spring is five. Rio Rancho and Cleveland are only getting four games, as are Roswell and Goddard, plus Las Cruces, Mayfield, Oñate and Centennial.

All of those schools are jumping into the schedule starting in Week 2, including the mega-attractive matchup between Clovis and Cleveland on Saturday afternoon, March 13, in Rio Rancho.

The annual Las Cruces-Mayfield game also is March 13 — but at the Field of Dreams instead of Aggie Memorial Stadium. Rio Rancho and Cleveland will play at Cleveland on Friday, March 26, to end the abbreviated regular season.

No spectators are going to be allowed, at least not yet. And there are no football districts for this season, so schedules are largely regional in nature.

The Week 5 schedule should be determined by about mid-March, Young said.