LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Former Gophers athletics director McKinley Boston took over as New Mexico State's AD in late 2004 and, since that time, the Aggies have fared well in most sports across the board except football.
The men's basketball team has reached the NCAA tournament four times during Boston's tenure, including the past two seasons.
But the football team can't get over the hump. The Aggies have a .210 winning percentage during Boston's tenure, and the drought stretches back decades. New Mexico State has gone the longest stretch without a bowl berth in the nation, dating to its Sun Bowl trip in 1960.
The Aggies were part of the Western Athletic Conference from 2005 to 2012, but with that league dissolved, they are independent this season.
"Anytime you're at a mid-major, in a lot of cases it's about resources," Boston said. "When we joined the WAC, our budget was in the lower third, and that was that period where Boise State was upsetting Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, and Hawaii had that great year [going to the Sugar Bowl in 2007].
"So the people that we were competing against invested a lot of money in their programs, and we just didn't have the money."
New Mexico State defeated the Gophers in 2011 in Minneapolis, despite entering that game as 20-point underdogs. But after that season, then-offensive coordinator Doug Martin left to take the same job at Boston College.
"He was our heart and soul," Boston said. "We didn't know it at the time, and you never know what the real impact of an assistant coach is on a program. But I realized the presence he had in the locker room, the way the kids respected him and the confidence he instilled."
