UNM is home to both the best futbol team and the worst football team.
Both teams have had contrasting seasons — the men’s soccer team is ranked No. 1 in the country while the football team is ranked No. 120 out of 120 Division I football teams.
The men’s soccer team is undefeated this season with a 15-0-2 record and is currently on an 11-game win streak. It has outscored teams 38-9 this season, including 25-4 in the second half of games. It has won all eight of its home games and has yet to even tie a game in conference.
Goalkeeper Victor Rodriguez has eight shutouts on the season while forwards Blake Smith and Devon Sandoval have scored nine and seven goals respectively this year.
Eleven different players have scored for UNM this year on their way to becoming the only undefeated team in the country.
The same cannot be said for the football team.
The men’s soccer team dominates its opponents in nearly every statistical category, while the football team’s stats consistently lag far behind its opponents.
The football team is 0-8 and has lost 30 of its last 32 games.
This season it has been shut out in two games, has scored 10 points or fewer in five games and has been outscored 375-106.
The football team is one of only two teams in the country yet to win a game, and in every game but one this year the opposing team has scored at least 42 points on the Lobos.
The Lobos delivered their worst performance of the season two weeks ago when they played TCU. The Lobos were held to just 85 yards of offense in a 69-0 loss.
Both Lobo teams have played Air Force this season. The soccer team won its game 1-0, and that one goal was one more point than the football team put up in its 42-0 loss to the Falcons.
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The fans are feeling it, too, with attendance rates for both teams moving in opposite directions.
The soccer team’s home game against Air Force was attended by 4,781 fans, nearly filling up the 5,000 seat stadium. The football team, on the other hand, had just 16,691 people watching its game against Air Force, barely filling the 39,224 seat University Stadium.
The football team just has one home game left this season, against UNLV, and three road games, including against No. 5 Boise State.
The football team, which went 1-11 in each of its past two seasons, is coming dangerously close to ending this season with an even worse record if it fails to win a single game.
The soccer team has one final game this regular season against UNLV on Saturday. It won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation last weekend with two games to spare. If the team beats UNLV this weekend, this year will mark the first undefeated season in Lobo men’s soccer history.
Records show that this will be the first time in history for a university to have an undefeated men’s soccer team and a winless football team at the end of the regular season.
The rest of the world loves futbol more than football. Maybe it’s time for UNM to make the switch too.
