Ex-New Mexico State coach Greg Heiar said he was fired after scandals because school needed ‘sacrificial lamb’

Fired New Mexico State basketball coach Greg Heiar insists that he didn’t know about hazing allegations within the Aggies’ program last season, and claims in arbitration documents that he was only fired because the school needed a “sacrificial lamb,” according to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf.

Heiar was fired earlier this year, shortly after New Mexico State’s season ended early in February after a hazing investigation into the program was launched and a former player was involved in a deadly shooting. Heiar was fired with cause.

Heiar, who was hired at a Missouri junior college earlier this year, has since filed a lawsuit against the university for breach of contract. He’s seeking an undisclosed sum.

New Mexico State agreed to pay a total of $8 million to two former basketball players who said they were sexually assaulted and hazed by teammates last season. The players alleged that this happened repeatedly throughout the year, and that nobody stopped what was happening. Heiar, one of the players said, knew of the abuse but did “little, if anything,” to address the issue.

Earlier in the season, former Aggies player Mike Peake was involved in a deadly shooting at the University of New Mexico’s campus. He was allegedly “lured” to campus the night before their game there by UNM students, who then reportedly ambushed him. Peake allegedly then shot and killed New Mexico student Brandon Travis in self defense. After the shooting, police said Peake met up with teammates and put his gun and a tablet in the back of their car. That gun was left with an assistant coach at the team hotel, and the team then left town early to go home. The two incidents were not related.

New Mexico State then shut down the program early in February. The school has hired former Sam Houston State coach Jason Hooten to replace Heiar.

In the arbitration documents, Heiar insisted he was unaware of hazing allegations within the program. He also claimed that the school knew of them a month before he was told, something the school defended due to Title IX rules and school policies. Heiar also said he wasn’t told of the “toxic and secretive culture” within the program when he was hired in 2022.

As for the deadly shooting incident, Heiar claims that he was at athletic director Mario Moccia’s house in October when he received a video of a fight between Peake and Travis at the New Mexico State-New Mexico football game. Heiar claims that Moccia “smiled” and said the video showed his players “whooping up on some Lobos.” After the shooting, Heiar said he was prohibited from suspending or punishing players at Moccia’s direction. Moccia, Heiar said, told him that “we just need to win, win, win. This will all go away, but we do not need any more bad media at this point. We are on thin ice, getting thinner.”

New Mexico State denied Heiar’s allegations in the arbitration documents, per ESPN, and said that he “refused to cooperate” with the investigation into hazing allegations before he was fired.