Should a university really be offering scholarships for some of these sports? Why aren't these club sports where the participants basically pay their own way?
The unintended consequences of Title IX have been huge. Participation of women has probably risen but at the cost of some men's sports, primarily wrestling.
New Mexico really picked a bad time to tank in football. They were in the abyss when the first round of conference realignment went around and were still bad when the Big 12 was considering adding teams. If football had been good to go along with a historically pretty good men's basketball program, UNM might have gotten some attention from either the Pac-12 or Big 12. Albuquerque is a reasonably large TV market, UNM would be the only P5 school in the state, and the academics aren't awful. The Lobos wouldn't have been a premium addition but may have been a decent partner with another addition.
It could be worse. The Lobos could be like Idaho dropping their football program down to FCS.
I think I could become a fan of beach volleyball.