Give the Aggies Liberty — 4 times

LAS CRUCES — In the near future, the New Mexico State football program will get as familiar with Liberty University as the Dallas Cowboys are with the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos are with the Oakland Raiders.

That’s because the Aggies have signed to play Liberty University of Lynchburg, Va., twice a season — as do NFL intradivisional rivals — for 2018 and 2019.

The Aggies are preparing for a football future as an independent after this fall, their final season in the Sun Belt Conference. Liberty, meanwhile, was approved by the NCAA on Feb. 16 of this year for Football Bowl Subdivision reclassification. The twoyear FBS reclassification process starts this fall.

“We are excited to take another step toward the completion of our 2018 and 2019 football schedules,” NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia said in a statement. “I would like to thank Liberty Director of Athletics Ian McCaw for his hard work and creativity in bringing our two universities together for what should be four very exciting football games.”

The Aggies have eight games lined up for 2018. The other opponents are Wyoming, Minnesota, New Mexico, UTEP, Georgia Southern and Louisiana. Neither NMSU nor Liberty will be penalized should either team accept an invitation to a conference and needs those dates instead for league games.

The first-ever meeting between the Aggies and Flames will take place on Oct. 6, 2018, at Aggie Memorial Stadium. New Mexico State will then return the trip on Nov. 28. In 2019, the two teams play in Las Cruces on Oct. 5 and at Liberty on Nov. 30.

“We are very excited about having Liberty on our future schedule,” Aggie head coach Doug Martin said. “Having competed against Turner Gill when we were both head coaches in the MAC, I can assure you they will be a very well coached opponent.”