Boston College Football: Eagles To Play At New Mexico State On November 9

When the New Mexico State Aggies were added to complete Boston College's 2013 schedule back in December, it was largely assumed that N.M. State would travel to the Heights in November next season. Sounds like that isn't meant to be. Heights Sports is reporting that the Eagles will instead travel to Las Cruces on November 9 to take on the Aggies.

The Boston College football team will play six away games in 2013, as its matchup with New Mexico State will be played at Aggie Memorial Stadium. The Eagles are scheduled to travel out to Las Cruces, N.M. on the weekend of Nov. 9 to play the non-conference game, a BC source has confirmed to The Heights.

This leaves Boston College with just six home games in 2013. The Eagles will face Stony Brook, Army, Florida State, N.C. State, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest at home; USC, New Mexico State, Clemson, Maryland, North Carolina and Syracuse on the road.

The only question I'm left with here is why?

I really want to understand the reasoning behind this move because it makes no sense to me. I don't understand why a BCS AQ program would ever go to Las Cruces for a game. That's nothing against New Mexico State; merely to question why a BCS AQ would go to a WAC-turned-independent program that was nearly on the brink of dropping down to the Football Championship Subdivision at the end of this season following the demise of the WAC. I also don't see the benefit of breaking up the ACC portion of the schedule to travel nearly cross-country to take on New Mexico State.

There's also no reason BC should have less than seven home games a season, particularly with as weak as home schedule as the program has next season. This will mark the third straight year that the Eagles will have just six home games on the home schedule. The following season is shaping up to be the same with a road non-conference game at UMass and a neutral site game against Army at Yankee Stadium. A six game home schedule is no reward for loyal season ticket holders and a lost opportunity to generate additional revenue for the program.

I'm sure DeFilippo thought swapping home dates with Army in 2012 and 2013 was a fine idea at the time, too.

Help me out here. In what ways would moving the N.M. State game from Chestnut Hill to Las Cruces benefit the program? Even if there are multiple return trips in the works? How many return trips would the Aggies have to make to make this worth it?