N. Mexico St. (5-6) seeks waiver to play in bowl

New Mexico State is asking the NCAA’s football oversight committee for a waiver that would allow its group to play in a bowl if it ends up with a 5-6 record.Athletic director Mario Moccia told ESPN that the school submitted its appeal Monday. The football oversight committee is expected to talk about the appeal and decide in the middle of the week, as bowl game pairings are finalized Dec. 4. New Mexico State’s appeal is mainly based upon

its inability to play a 12th game that would enable it to receive bowl eligibility. The team’s Oct. 22 home game versus San Jose State was delayed and later on canceled after the death of San Jose State player Camdan McWright in a traffic collision on Oct. 21. New Mexico State tried to set up a game with a number of FBS challengers for its open week on

Nov. 3 however was unsuccessful, Moccia stated. The school also attempted to arrange an FBS opponent for this coming Saturday but could not find one going to play.The Aggies on Saturday upset Liberty 49-14 regardless of going into the game as 24-point underdogs. They enhanced to 5-6 however have a win versus FCS Lamar. Teams can not count two games against FCS challengers toward bowl eligibility. “That’s our only shot: We weren’t given the chance to play, it’s out of our control, and we have actually tried to set up everybody else out there and we can’t,”Moccia stated. “If it does not make good sense for you to play, you’re not going to play it just to assist somebody else. I understand that part. “There are presently 79 bowl-eligible teams for 82 offered areas, although Buffalo can get to 6 wins when it deals with Akron in a rescheduled game Friday. If not every area is filled, 5-7 groups with the highest Academic Development Rate ratings are granted eligibility, beginning with Rice and UNLV, which fired coach Marcus Arroyo on Monday. Moccia kept in mind that New Mexico State’s 5-6 record carries a much better portion than 5-7 records but worried that the group has attempted to give itself a 12th game. “We’re stuck,”first-year coach Jerry Kill stated.” It’s my task to combat for our kids. To me, it should not even be a battle. It prevails sense that when a team has a death, they choose not to play you

and they won’t play you later, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. We’ve called and exhausted every [possibility] We’ll go play any person today.”New Mexico State is wishing to play another FCS team this week in Valparaiso, however Valparaiso needs an NCAA waiver to play the Aggies and is still waiting for the decision. Moccia stated the Valparaiso game would enable New Mexico State to have senior day and meet its allocation of house games.”We plainly understand playing this game has nothing to do with bowl eligibility,”he said.New Mexico State has actually made just one bowl look since 1960, when it beat Utah State in the 2017 Arizona Bowl. Kill, the previous coach at Minnesota and Northern Illinois, took control of a program that went 2-10 last season. To possibly reach a championship game in Year 1 would

be” a tremendous story for college football, “Kill said.”It would be an enormous occasion in the history of the football program, that’s not an understatement, “Moccia said.”We sure hope things work out in our favor.”