LAS CRUCES, N.M. -Â Today, New Mexico State University made the difficult decision to postpone its 2020 football season due to the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to affect our nation.
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This decision was reached in conjunction with President John Floros, Chancellor Dan Arvizu and Head Football Coach
Doug Martin. We have relied on the knowledge and expertise of both our on-campus medical staff and others to arrive at this decision.
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"Our top priority has been and always will be to safeguard the health and livelihood of our student-athletes, coaches and staff. Though difficult, this decision was made with those factors foremost on our minds," commented NM State Director of Athletics
Mario Moccia.Â
"This decision was not made lightly," said NMSU President John Floros. "It was particularly hard for many of us who like college sports, and want to see our Aggies play. But by putting the safety, health and well-being of our student-athletes, our coaches and our staff fist, it became an easy decision to make."
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With the Big 10, Pac-12, Mid-American and Mountain West Conferences, UConn, UMass and Old Dominion a total of 53 FBS programs have made a similar decisions in recent days. Because of this, we came to the conclusion that creating a full, robust schedule for our student-athletes and fans would have been exceptionally difficult to accomplish. Finally, the state of New Mexico's 14-day quarantine order makes playing a football schedule with road games impossible.
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We will continue to monitor the college football landscape at a regional and national level while exploring the ability to play in the spring of 2021. As difficult as this decision was for our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans who had hopes of competing and enjoying Aggie football in the fall of 2020, it is the hope of NM State athletics that we can find a safe way for all of those parties to enjoy football this spring.
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NM State would also like to give a special thanks to the following individuals who did a tremendous job in tirelessly working to give our student-athletes the opportunity to compete this fall:Â Dr. Kathy Hanley, Regents Professor and Virologist, Dr. Michael Landon, former State of NM Department of Health Epidemiologist, Lori McKee, Director of the NM State Student Health Center, Dr. William Baker, Aggie team physician,
Dominic Moreno, Director of Sports Medicine,
Don Decker, Director of Sports Performance,
Braun Cartwright, Deputy AD/COO and all our athletic trainers and sports performance staff.
For complete coverage of New Mexico State football, follow us on Twitter (@NMStateFootball), Instagram (@NMStateFB) and like us on Facebook (NM State Football).
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