NMSU Football 'Stock Sale' Raises Nearly $70k in Two Days

Ever since he returned to New Mexico State almost six years ago, Director of Athletics Mario Moccia has always thought "out of the box" when it comes to fundraising. He created a Donate 4 State campaign last year during COVID when his basketball teams were forced to relocate to Arizona, which has now raised more than $182,000 from 560 donors. At the same time, he introduced collaborations for beer, wine, whiskey, tequila, and even a scented candle where proceeds from each sale went towards NMSU athletics. His latest effort is a stock sale to benefit the football program. To the surprise of no one, the fundraising campaign is approaching $70k since it went live Friday morning.

The bigger question is how his football program had no money in their foundation club account when Jerry Kill was hired a few weeks ago? That university account goes to anything the coach desires for the betterment of his program. Moccia said that it is dependent on how much the staff or individual place on fund raising. His most successful club account is the "Sixth Man" club, which benefits the men's basketball program and is run by NMSU supporter Shari Jones. "It is critical that the coach is involved and takes an active role in the success of the club account," Moccia told 600 ESPN. "The other big thing is that you need a point person who keeps things on track."

NMSU Athletics.

Moccia has identified some people who can become the point person for football, but as of now the athletic department is operating the account, in addition to the Aggie Athletic Club. Just a few weeks ago, the Green Bay Packers offered a stock offering to the general public for just the sixth time in club history. Taking a page from the Packers handbook, NMSU Deputy Athletic Director for External Operations Chet Savage helped create the stock offering idea for football, which included creating the website, stock certificate design, and the ordering of "wearable dividends" that contributors will receive with a minimum donation of $500. They are already 70% towards their goal, which does not include donations made by NMSU supporters when Coach Kill was introduced as the Aggies new head football coach. "I am stunned at the speed of how this has taken off in the first 48 hours," Moccia added. "I think the sky is the limit for how much this endeavor could top off at."

30 famous people you might not know were college athletes

Stacker dug deep to find 30 celebrities who were previously college athletes. There are musicians, politicians, actors, writers, and reality TV stars. For some, an athletic career was a real, promising possibility that ultimately faded away due to injury or an alternate calling. Others scrapped their way onto a team and simply played for fun and the love of the sport. Read on to find out if your favorite actor, singer, or politician once sported a university jersey.