Aloha, Hawaii! New Mexico State Adds Rainbow Warriors to Future Schedule

NMSU Athletics Director Marrio Moccia announced Thursday that the Aggies and the University of Hawaii have agreed to a home and home series for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

New Mexico State will make the 3,212 mile journey to Aloha Stadium in 2020, while the Rainbow Warriors will return the favor in 2021.

Due to the new series, NMSU’s road game against the University of Minnesota has been moved to September 1,2022.

This will mark the first game between the two former WAC rivals since 2011. The Aggies have never defeated the Rainbow Warriors (0-8 all time).

I really think this is a great series to be scheduled. It’s a program that drifted away from the Las Cruces fan base but is also one that I think will be easy for fans to make a friendly rivalry out of.

Head Coach Doug Martin reflected my feelings on the series in his comment on the game:

“Having home-and-home games with Hawaii is another great addition to our future schedules. Any time we can play a Mountain West team where there is history that our fan base can relate to and be excited about is great for our community.”

Not only is it good for the fan base, it’s good for the program.

If the Aggies can beat up on Mountain West schools (Utah State, Wyoming and New Mexico are also on the schedule) it would really help their case on being invited to the conference.

NMSU now has four games scheduled for 2020 (Hawaii, Texas State, New Mexico and UTEP) and five for 2021 (San Diego State, Hawaii, Utah State, New Mexico and UTEP).