sports@dailylobo.com
The shifting landscape of college sports finally hit UNM last week.
And no, it wasn’t football. Men’s soccer will be packing its bags and moving from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation to Conference USA starting next season.
Head coach Jeremy Fishbein said the conference change is one of the most important proceedings in UNM men’s soccer history.
“That, to me, is one of the most significant developments since I’ve been here,” he said. “We’ve been in the Mountain Pacific since I’ve been here for 11 years, which has been a very good conference for us. This opportunity to move to Conference USA is incredible; it’s one of the best conferences in the country. Last year they may well have had the highest RPI in the country. It’s going to bring big games to Albuquerque, big conference games with big schools.”
UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs credits Senior Associate Athletics Director Kurt Esser for instigating the move to Conference USA.
“Kurt Esser deserves a lot of credit,” Krebs said. “I think as he, coach Fishbein and I talked about the future of our men’s soccer program and how we can help it evolve, we thought if we could strengthen our conference it would be good for our program.
Conference USA is historically a stronger conference with RPI and teams from top to bottom. Once the opportunity presented itself, we jumped at it.”
Krebs said the move has no relation to prior talks between the MWC and C-USA about creating a super conference that would spread across all athletics in both conferences.
“It’s only for men’s soccer; it doesn’t affect any other sport and has nothing to do with any other discussions with Conference USA the past nine months,” Krebs said. “This is totally independent of all those discussions.”
The MWC and Conference USA made a deal in February to start a new conference as soon as the 2013-14 school year, but the deal fell through because the schools couldn’t come together on revenue-sharing television rights.
UNM is one of three new teams joining the conference, along with former Colonial Athletic Association member Old Dominion and 2011 national runner-up Charlotte. The three new members will join current C-USA teams Florida International University, Kentucky, Marshall, South Carolina, Tulsa and University of Alabama-Birmingham.
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The Lobos played against the Golden Hurricane and the Blazers earlier in the season, coming away with a 2-1 loss against Tulsa on Aug. 31 and a 2-0 win versus the Blazers on Friday.
This is the second time UNM will be leaving the MPSF; the Lobos were part of the conference from 1992-1995 but left to join the Western Athletic Conference in 1996. The Lobos came back to the MPSF in 1999, and have dominated the conference since its return. Since 1999, UNM has won seven regular season championships and three MPSF Tournament championships. Individually, the Lobos have been just as successful, with 91 All-MPSF honors and 81 All-MPSF academic mentions.
Krebs said the program will benefit from the national coverage the move will garner.
“I think it will only enhance what is an already incredibly strong product,” he said. “We were ranked No. 1 for a lot of last year and we’re a top-5 team, we historically play a very strong non-conference schedule. This will help our RPI; help our seeding for the postseason; it will bring more national attention to our program because we will be playing teams in other time zones.”
