Oklahoma was a 21.5-point favorite at DraftKings on Saturday night. That number is the point spread, and the easy way to think about it is as a head start: sportsbooks gave New Mexico 21.5 points before kickoff. The Lobos lost 14-6, so they beat the head start by 13.5 points.
They did it on defense. New Mexico trailed 7-6 at halftime, held Oklahoma to 61 rushing yards and intercepted quarterback John Mateer twice.
A Sooner fan wrote on the Lobos’ Facebook page afterward:
Sooner fan here! Y’all played an amazing game! I seriously think yall should’ve won so keep your heads up and keep grinding! I’m a fan now…
What each side brought to Norman
Oklahoma’s football program took in $125.5 million in the 2025 fiscal year, the fifth-highest among the SEC’s public schools and roughly 21 times New Mexico’s $6.0 million. Donations are a big part of the difference. Oklahoma’s football program took in more than $52 million of them. New Mexico’s took in $175,463.
- Donations
- Everything else
Each school's NCAA financial report for the year ended June 30, 2025. Oklahoma's donations are 'more than $52 million', shown as $52.0 million, and everything else is $125.5 million minus that. New Mexico's are $175,463 of $5,971,767. Oklahoma's figures reached us through Yahoo Sports and 247Sports.
Show the numbers
| Program | Donations | Everything else | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | $52.0M | $73.5M | $125.5M |
| New Mexico | $0.2M | $5.8M | $6.0M |
The football figures are what each school’s report assigns to football. New Mexico books its media, conference and student-fee money outside any one sport, so its football number understates what the program has to work with. Across the whole athletic department, the gap was $205.7 million to $61.6 million, about three to one, which is the fairer comparison.
Under its contract, New Mexico was also set to net about $1.6 million for making the trip.
Against that, a program in its second year under coach Jason Eck fought a ranked SEC team to an eight-point game.
A long way from 2011
It is a long way from Sept. 24, 2011. That homecoming night, New Mexico lost 48-45 in overtime to an FCS team, Sam Houston State, before 16,313 fans, the smallest home crowd in nearly two decades. The Lobos were 0-4. The next day, athletic director Paul Krebs fired coach Mike Locksley, who finished 2-26.
Now: Eck is 11-5. Last year’s Lobos went 9-4, were bowl-eligible for the first time since 2016 and played in the Rate Bowl in Phoenix. Attendance rose 57.8%, the biggest jump in the country.
The scoreboard says 14-6. The players, the coaches and the fans who filled the seats did more than anyone expected of a program that reports about a twentieth of Oklahoma’s football revenue. Be proud, Albuquerque. Then keep showing up: the Lobos play New Mexico State in Las Cruces on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., on CBS Sports Network.
Updated Oct. 14, 2026: We revised this story to source its facts to public records where we could, and removed details and quotes we could not confirm from a record.
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