New Mexico St. AD Moccia provided 5-year extension
New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia signed a five-year contract extension previously this month, on the same day his boss and a staunch defender, chancellor Dan Arvizu, stepped down almost 3 months earlier than scheduled.Moccia oversees a basketball program with previous players who are suing the school’s board of regents and 2 former coaches. The players declare administrators did nothing after they tried to inform them they had actually been sexually assaulted by teammates.Both the AD and Arvizu
signed the agreement on April 7, the date Arvizu announced he would leave immediately instead of at the end of his contract on June 30.
The Las Cruces Sun-News obtained the agreement, which calls for Moccia to get almost a $72,000 raise from his current deal and make $351,800 in the very first year of the brand-new agreement. His pay will escalate to $425,000 in the in 2015, which ends June 30, 2028.
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School representative Justin Bannister informed KTSM-TV that the timing of the offer was a coincidence.
“It had been in the works for rather some time,” Bannister stated. “The timing so took place to be on Arvizu’s last day.”
In a February press conference held after Arvizu canceled the Aggies’ basketball season and fired coach Greg Heiar in the wake of hazing allegations– the information of which came out in the suit submitted previously today– the chancellor staunchly safeguarded Moccia’s performance in his 8 years as AD at New Mexico State.And Moccia
protected his record as athletic director, saying “I made a list of every coach I have actually hired … and, you know, we have an exceptional batting average. Nobody bats a thousand.”
Among the claims in the suit was that one of the player’s dad attempted to reach Moccia to talk about the supposed assaults, but the AD did not return the calls. That resulted in the player taking his story to school authorities, who opened an investigation.The basketball program is likewise the topic of multiple examinations stemming from the fatal shooting of a University of New Mexico student by former player Mike Peake. Video of the shooting suggests Peake was acting in self-defense. He has not been charged. Cops needed to stop the group bus on Interstate 25 to question witnesses after the team left Albuquerque the morning after the shooting.In a meeting late last year, the NMSU board of regents decreased to restore Arvizu’s contract, which was set to expire at the end of June. On April 7, he announced he was leaving early to allow the school to concentrate on a look for his replacement.Arvizu had formerly drawn issues in the NMSU community after authorities body electronic camera
video came out from a dispute at his home. The chancellor was accused by his spouse, Sheryl, of having an affair with a NMSU team member. He rejected the affair.