Eagles schedule road dates at UNM, NMSU
Payouts of nonconference games will help double school’s travel budget
Payday came a little early for the Northern New Mexico College men’s basketball team.
After enduring a modest budget cut during the latest legislative session, the Eagles got a proverbial shot in the arm last week when the state’s big boys stepped in with a helping hand. Northern head coach Ryan Cordova announced last Thursday that his program had finalized contracts to play road games at The University of New Mexico and New Mexico State next season.
NNMC will visit The Pit on Nov. 11 and travel to the Pan American Center in Las Cruces in January, a pair of nonconference games that are worth more than $10,000 for the cash-strapped Eagles.
Combined with other nonleague games at NCAA Division I program Northern Colorado and D-II programs Adams State, Tarleton State and ColoradoColorado Springs, NNMC will rake in enough money to double its annual travel budget of $20,000.
“Really what it does is allow us to spend that money elsewhere,” said Northern head coach Ryan Cordova.
Specifically scholarships, he said. Cordova said NNMC allots the equivalent of 1.5 scholarships for his active roster of up to 17 players. The added revenue could easily double or triple it.
“We came out of the Legislature OK because it was that same 1-percent cut everyone got,” Cordova said,
“but what this extra money does for us is allow us to recruit a better athlete and attract a different kind of player.”
The Eagles’ game in The Pit will be the regular season opener for the Lobos, making it the debut of new UNM head coach Paul Weir. It’s Cordova’s relationship with Weir that helped set this game up, but the genesis for the game actually came from Lobos assistant Chris Herriman. A holdover from Craig Neal’s staff, Herriman originally contacted Cordova before Neal was fired in March and then finalized the deal in the last two weeks.
“Certainly Paul being around helped,” Cordova said. “I’ve had a good relationship with him since he was in Las Cruces and, really, he’s the kind of coach and kind of guy who wants something like this to happen. He’s one of those no-nonsense kind of guys who tells you like it is. It makes him good to deal with.”
NNMC has played the Aggies four years in a row, the last two of which came at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho. The games usually came with a $4,000 payout but next year’s contract comes with a reduced guarantee of $2,500.
The game in The Pit has a $5,000 guaranteed payout. Cordova expects both games to come with overnight accommodations for the players and staff, as well as courtesy tickets that adds a $2,000 value for each game.
The Eagles’ game at Northern Colorado has a guarantee of $6,500 while the trip to Tarleton State, which Cordova is still negotiating, will generate at least $2,000 without accommodations. More than than, he said, is the marketing. “Every schedule and sports outlet that lists all the Lobo and Aggie games will have us on there,” Cordova said. “That’s hundreds and thousands of people who will see our school’s name thrown out there on a Lobo schedule, not to mention tens of thousands of people who get Aggie schedules. We simply can’t afford that kind of marketing ourselves.”
Northern will play 19 games on the road next season and just 11 at home. An NAIA independent, it means lots of time spent in buses and living out of suitcases. That’s why Cordova is so grateful to the state’s Division I programs giving him a chance.
“What Paul Weir did with New Mexico State and will do with the Lobos, I don’t think the people of Albuquerque really realize yet what kind of guy they’ve got — not yet,” Cordova said. “He’s willing to help us out, yeah, but he’s more than that as a recruiter and a coach. The guy’s doing to do amazing things there. People are kind of freaking out but I say give him a chance.”
CAMPS
The Eagles are getting ready to host a pair of youth camps June 19-23 at their Española campus. One for players ages 6 through 10 will run each day from 9 a.m. to noon while another for players age 11 through 16 is 1 to 5 p.m. every day. The cost is $100 for each child, which includes a shirt, pizza part, prizes and free admission to Eagles home games.
For more information, visit the school’s website at www.nnmceagles.com.