New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia was fired last week following an investigation from the state's attorney general into a highly publicized hazing scandal within the men's basketball program.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez issued a scathing 70-page report following a highly publicized hazing scandal that rocked NMSU’s athletic department in the 2022-23 season. Three members of the men’s basketball team were charged on multiple counts following a monthslong investigation, including sexual penetration, false imprisonment and criminal sexual contact.
“The NMDOJ’s examination of peer university training modules indicates that NMSU’s hazing education efforts for coaches and athletics staff has been inadequate,” the report states.
The report also mentions the public backlash following a fatal shooting in which an NMSU basketball player shot and killed a UNM student just hours before a the Aggies took on the Lobos.
Moccia was mentioned many times throughout the report.
“Earlier today, I met with Mario Moccia to let him know that I intend to go in a different direction with the leadership of NMSU’s athletic department,” NMSU president Valerio Ferme said in a statement. “After carefully reviewing the recent report issued by the New Mexico Department of Justice, I felt we needed a fresh start in our athletics program.“
Moccia has served his alma mater as AD for 10 years. He played baseball at the school and had a brief sting as a minor league player in the Detroit Tigers' farm system.
Moaccia was given a five-year contract extension in the aftermath of the hazing incident by outgoing NMSU chancellor Dan Arvizu last April. Arvizu and Moccia made the unprecedented move — approximately seven weeks after initial complaints from victims began to surface — of canceling the team’s season with six games remaining on the schedule before firing the entire coaching staff.
