The New Mexico State University football team will begin its quest in the coming days in hopes of finding another game this season to fill out its schedule.
Thursday night's season opener against Nicholls University was postponed because Hurricane Gustav is expected to hit the Gulf Coast in the coming days, forcing the Colonels to cancel their trip to Las Cruces.
NMSU Athletics Director McKinley Boston said a make-up date with Nicholls State is a possibility, but he also left open the possibility that another school could be involved as well.
"There are some options out there, but not a lot of them,"
Boston said.
Boston said he'd have to consider budget restraints as well in considering a future opponent and also whether it would be attractive for that school to play the Aggies.
New Mexico State is off for two weeks between its Sept. 27 game vs. New Mexico and its Western Athletic Conference opener against Nevada in Reno on Oct. 11.
Nicholls' only week off comes the week NMSU takes on UNM, so if the Aggies and Colonels play later, it would have to be after NMSU's season finale against Utah State on Nov. 29.
The Aggies have bowl aspirations in 2008, so having a game dropped from their could have an impact on the team's bowl eligibly prospects.
"It only matters if we don't have six wins,"
said Boston of the possibly of not being able to reschedule Thursday's game.
In regards to tickets for Thursday's game, no single-game tickets had been sold for Thursday's game according to Steve Macy, NMSU's Associate AD for marketing and promotions.
Macy said all single-game tickets will be sold on the Monday of game week for all remaining home contests.
He added that no decision had been made on any type of refunds for season-ticket holders because there is still the option of a sixth home game.
Macy added that the athletics department has sold close to 2,000 new season tickets for this season.
With the postponement of Thursday's game, the Aggies will now start their season on Sept. 13 at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers will have two games under their belt before they play NMSU. They played Western Michigan on Saturday night and take on San Jose State next Saturday.
"We'll do a lot of work on fundamentals in the next week,"
NMSU head coach Hal Mumme said. "We'll be able to get our young players a lot of work."
Added NMSU safety Derrick Richardson: "It's disappointing not to play. We'll get a chance to work on some more things, we just have to refocus on Nebraska and get ready for (Nebraska). They will have two games under its belt and that's a concern."
