New Mexico State -3.5 (-110) over Fresno State
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- New Mexico State will be playing in front of a friendly home crowd with this game taking place in their home state.
- Fresno State stumbled down the stretch this season, blowing their chance to finish at the top of the Mountain West, which will continue in this contest.
The New Mexico Bowl is a game that has been around for well over a decade, taking its place near the start of the bowl season each year. But just because this game isn’t near the end of the college bowl calendar doesn’t mean this game doesn’t have the potential to be very entertaining. Here, we look at the history of the New Mexico Bowl, along with a preview of this year’s edition of the game.
2023 New Mexico Bowl Analysis
In this year’s New Mexico Bowl, we get a team from New Mexico participating in the festivities. The New Mexico State Aggies will play in this contest against the Fresno State Bulldogs, in a game between two teams that had very different endings to their seasons. Fresno State started this season with an 8-1 record but dropped its last three games, while New Mexico State caught fire late in the year and finished as the runners-up in Conference USA.
In this game, the playmaking of Diego Pavia for New Mexico State will be the key. Pavia is said to be participating in this contest per Aggies coach Jerry Kill. His ability to make plays both with his arm and his legs could be a real headache for Fresno State, on top of the issues associated with playing in front of a pro-Aggies crowd.
New Mexico Bowl History
The New Mexico Bowl was first played in 2006 and takes place at the University of New Mexico. This game has tie-ins with the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA, the two leagues that are home to New Mexico and New Mexico State. Below is a list of the winners and runners-up in the New Mexico Bowl from 2006 to the most recent edition of the game.
| Year | Bowl Winner | Bowl Runner-Up |
| 2006 | San Jose State | New Mexico |
| 2007 | New Mexico | Nevada |
| 2008 | Colorado State | Fresno State |
| 2009 | Wyoming | Fresno State |
| 2010 | BYU | UTEP |
| 2011 | Temple | Wyoming |
| 2012 | Arizona | Nevada |
| 2013 | Colorado State | Washington State |
| 2014 | Utah State | UTEP |
| 2015 | Arizona | New Mexico |
| 2016 | New Mexico | UTSA |
| 2017 | Marshall | Colorado State |
| 2018 | Utah State | North Texas |
| 2019 | San Diego State | Central Michigan |
| 2020 | Hawaii | Houston |
| 2021 | Fresno State | UTEP |
| 2022 | BYU | SMU |
Bowl Game MVPs
The New Mexico Bowl is a game that features both offensive and defensive MVPs. New Mexico Bowl MVPs include some recognizable names, starting with the first MVP of the game in James Jones, who went on to play for the Green Bay Packers. Since then, other pros have joined Jones as MVPs, including a starting quarterback in the NFL in Jordan Love. Below is a full list of New Mexico Bowl MVPs from 2006 to the present.
| Year | Offensive MVP | Defensive MVP | Team |
| 2006 | James Jones | Matt Castelo | San Jose State |
| 2007 | Donovan Porterie | Brett Madsen | New Mexico |
| 2008 | Gartrell Johnson | Tommie Hill | Colorado State |
| 2009 | Austyn Carta-Samuels | Mitch Unrein | Wyoming |
| 2010 | Jake Heaps | Andrew Rich | BYU |
| 2011 | Chris Coyer | Tahir Whitehead | Temple |
| 2012 | Matt Scott | Marquis Flowers | Arizona |
| 2013 | Connor Halliday | Shaquil Barrett | Washington State/Colorado State |
| 2014 | Kent Myers | Zach Vigil | Utah State |
| 2015 | Anu Solomon | Scooby Wright III | Arizona |
| 2016 | LamarJordan | Dakota Cox | New Mexico |
| 2017 | Tyre Brady | Channing Hames | Marshall |
| 2018 | Jordan Love | DJ Williams | Utah State |
| 2019 | Jordan Byrd/Jesse Matthews | Kyahva Tezino | San Diego State |
| 2020 | Calvin Turner | Darius Muasau | Hawaii |
| 2021 | Jordan Mims | Elijah Gates | Fresno State |
| 2022 | Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters | Ben Bywater | BYU |
