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Another longtime FBS member will leave Conference USA when Louisiana Tech departs for the Sun Belt next year. Now, Conference USA will have just two schools that were FBS members before the start of the millennium and four that were FBS members before 2010. The senior FBS member in the conference, New Mexico State, loses another longtime rival.
First, the Aggies lost I-10 rival UTEP, when the Miners announced their move to the Mountain West after two decades in Conference USA. While the game remains scheduled, being in the same conference as the Miners added an element to the rivalry not seen since both schools were members of the Border Conference in 1962.
Although Louisiana Tech will never be as fierce a rival for New Mexico State as UTEP is, its FBS journey is intertwined with the Aggies in multiple ways. Conference USA marked the third different conference in which the Aggies and Bulldogs cohabitated. The two schools played in 1995 as Big West members, and yearly from 2005 to 2012 as members of the WAC. Additionally, both schools have met 14 times since the series began in 1967. The series provided familiarity in the face of rapid conference changes for both schools. While Louisiana Tech will join in-state rivals in Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe, it’s three-time conference foe New Mexico State has hardly anyone they can call a rival.
Logic would say Sam Houston is an ideal rival for the Aggies. However, despite being New Mexico State's closest Conference USA counterpart, the Bearkats are still nearly 800 miles from Las Cruces. The schools first met in 2023 and share a limited history in other sports outside their shared stint in the WAC from 2020-2022.
Florida International and New Mexico State met in 2004 during FIU's transitional period to the FBS level when the Panthers played three other Sun Belt schools but did not meet for another 18 years.
Middle Tennessee could be New Mexico State's biggest Conference USA rival remaining. Sure, nearly 1400 miles separate Las Cruces from Murfreesboro, but there is some semblance of history between the two schools. The Aggies and Blue Raiders were founding members of the Sun Belt in 2001 and split their four meetings as members of that conference.
Liberty also has a case due to their period of shared independence with New Mexico State which created four meetings in 2018 and 2019 through two rare in-season home-and-home series. The series also has multiple memorable moments including the Aggies' stunning 49-14 upset blowout over a Liberty team that beat Arkansas in 2022 and the 2023 Conference USA Championship Game that sent Liberty to the Fiesta Bowl.
New Mexico State both won and lost in conference realignment in different ways. While the Aggies found a stable home in Conference USA, they remain a geographic outlier in a league with members they shared little history with, if any. The loss of Louisiana Tech means the end of one of New Mexico State’s few connections to the past in the conference.
