LAS CRUCES - New Mexico State football coach Doug Martin didn't wait long after winning the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl to begin looking to the future.
Days after the victory, Martin spoke about adding two assistant coaches and getting bowl bonuses for his current coaching staff.
College football teams now have NCAA-allotted 10 assistant coaches after moving from nine this month. NMSU has 8. How likely is it that NMSU can add coaches to the same level of its peers in the middle of the year?
NMSU athletics director Mario Moccia said ticket sales are up and the department is "holding the line" on expenses, which bodes well for a ninth coach.
"There are some opportunities for midyear adjustments and I think adding an assistant football coach for spring ball is a possibility and in the forefront of our thinking," Moccia said.
The football team in 2018 will play as an independent after four years of affiliation with the Sun Belt Conference. All Sun Belt teams will be adding a 10th assistant next year, Moccia said.
"We certainly want to put that (a 10th assistant coach) in the budget for next year," he said.
Appalachian State head coach Scott Satterfield, who played two games against NMSU during the Aggies' most recent four-year Sun Belt membership, said his school had nine assistant coaches last year and will have 10 in 2018.
"As many people as you can get around your student athletes, the better," he said. "If you look at basketball (three assistants for 13 scholarship athletes), their coach-to-student ratio is better. We have over 100 guys so it helps us manage our players. In a classroom, it's a difference when you have one teacher for 30 kids or one for 18."
Any immediate addition of staff would have to come out of the athletics department budget, while long-term staffing changes would likely require a restructuring of the athletic department's debt to the main campus, according to NMSU Board of Regents Chair Debra HIcks.
NMSU athletics has nearly paid off a debt to the main campus of roughly $10 million, stemming from New Mexico State's transition to the Western Athletic Conference in 2005.
The NMSU athletics department is scheduled to make a payment for $823,000 this year. Moccia's department is on track to pay the remaining $3,278,744 by the end of Fiscal Year 2021. Moccia said he has approached university leadership with the prospect of extending the debt payments over an additional three years.
Hicks said the university would have a better understanding of any debt restructuring in February after meeting with Moccia initially in October regarding finances.
"We would have to work it out in our budget, then it would go to the higher education department and they would review it then with legislative finance," Hicks said. "We have to go through those steps but come up with a way that works within the checks and balances of our finances."
Hicks did not rule out additional staff to reach the NCAA allotted positions for the football team, but noted departments across the campus, face similar challenges.
"In past years, when there have been budget cuts, it has been across the board rather than strategic and based on performance," Hicks said. "Those are things we are working on right now in our budget meetings.
"I do know that there are proposals coming in for new positions (across campus). The Chancellor (Garrey Carruthers) has a freeze on new positions, but it is not unreasonable."
Relative to similar institutions, the athletic teams at New Mexico State are understaffed and underpaid.
"New Mexico State as a whole has been in a tough economic environment and athletics has been part of it," Moccia said. "We saw the discontinuation of equestrian as part of it."
The goal of the entire campus is to grow enrollment, which would solve problems, Hicks said.
"Change really happens when we start meeting our metrics and we get our enrollment up," Hicks said. "Not just first year students but we need to increase our enrollment. In the short term, we have to be strategic."
Sports Editor Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves.