Ready for some football? Here are the highlights of the 2024 New Mexico high school schedule

Aug. 16—What follows may not represent every prep football game that should be on a fan's radar, but here are some of the matchups worth following during the 11 weeks of the regular season.

WEEK 1: The metro area has two of the three Thursday nighters that open the season on Aug. 22

Rio Rancho is at Atrisco Heritage at Nusenda Community Stadium, and Piedra Vista, the only new member of Class 6A football, plays Sandia at Wilson Stadium.

There are several fantastic opening-week showdowns in the metro on Friday: Centennial at Cleveland, Volcano Vista-La Cueva at Community, and Roswell at Los Lunas.

And for the first time in their storied history, Las Cruces and Mayfield will meet on the season's opening week, this one at the Field of Dreams.

Lovington's first game in 5A has the Wildcats at home versus Hobbs.

WEEK 2: It's a 4A state final rematch, with Lovington visiting Portales.

Las Cruces, most certainly an upper tier 6A state contender, makes the first of two straight visits to the metro, playing Volcano Vista on Friday. Centennial, another of those 6A powers, is here the following afternoon against Atrisco Heritage.

Los Lunas has three demanding nondistrict games; the middle of the three is here in Week 2, at Cleveland.

One of the highest profile games occurs in Flagstaff, Arizona, with Pinnacle High from Phoenix taking on La Cueva in a late afternoon meeting on Saturday.

WEEK 3: Valencia and Belen don't play Los Lunas anymore, but they do play each other, this year in Belen.

Portales and Farmington, plus Las Cruces and Goddard, all bus into the metro area. The Rams are at Bernalillo, the Scorpions are at Los Lunas, and the Bulldawgs square off against Rio Rancho. Goddard is at Valley; Vikings coach Billy Cobos is a Goddard graduate.

Other games to note include Artesia at Centennial and Santa Fe-St. Michael's.

WEEK 4: Cleveland has a road trip on Thursday at Las Cruces at the Field of Dreams, and this is certainly one of those regular season games that could easily be repeated in November.

Rio Rancho is also at the FOD, on Friday opposite Centennial.

With the massive new District 2-6A, we already enter league play, and the first weekend of district offers a doozy between La Cueva and Sandia, on Friday.

Roswell at Lovington and Santa Rosa at Tularosa are among the other top games to watch.

WEEK 5: Not a lot of hugely appealing options.

Las Cruces is at Hobbs in a key District 3-6A contest, and Bloomfield and Aztec meet in the Four Corners.

Farmington makes another trip to the metro, this time against La Cueva.

WEEK 6: This is the middle week of the regular season. St. Pius is most assuredly one of the promising young teams in Class 4A; the Sartans are home on Thursday night against traditional 4A power Silver.

With Artesia and Lovington back in the same classification, this is now a district game. The rivals pair off in Lovington.

Valley and Highland have a key Saturday afternoon district game at Milne Stadium.

WEEK 7: Thursday night at Community brings together St. Pius and Albuquerque Academy to open the action.

Eldorado-La Cueva highlights the Friday night slate; Farmington returns yet again, against Cleveland, as the Scorpions and Storm are now district partners.

Clayton, an 8-Man state finalist last year, is at Menaul. Portales takes the nearly 400-mile drive to Silver City; yes, they are in the same district now, at least for the next two years.

WEEK 8: District 2-6A has a pivotal meeting at Wilson Stadium on Thursday between La Cueva and Los Lunas.

Farmington by Week 8 knows that trip down NM 550 by heart, and this time the Scorps face Volcano Vista. Farmington upset VV in the first round of the 6A playoffs last November.

Other games on the radar: Santa Rosa-Estancia, Sandia-Eldorado, St. Pius-Portales.

WEEK 9: We finally reach the showdown between last year's Class 5A finalists, Roswell and Artesia. This game is at Bulldog Bowl, where Artesia beat the Coyotes in the 2023 state final.

Volcano Vista takes on Rio Rancho in 1-6A.

Breezing around the docket, Socorro-Cobre, Tularosa-Eunice, Estancia-Legacy Academy (a newcomer to Class 2A), Academy at Silver, Robertson at Hope Christian and Clovis at Hobbs bear scrutiny.

WEEK 10: Eunice and Jal renew their outstanding rivalry in Jal in a much anticipated Class 2A game.

In 6A, Volcano Vista at Cleveland is the headliner, but games in other classifications to watch include Artesia-Goddard at Wool Bowl, Valley at Los Alamos, Texico at Tularosa and Portales at Albuquerque Academy.

WEEK 11: It's rivalry weekend as the regular season closes. Two massive 6A games — Rio Rancho at Cleveland, and Las Cruces-Centennial at the FOD — both could decide district championships.

St. Michael's and Robertson met a year ago in the 3A championship game, and they meet to end this season in Las Vegas. Sandia at Los Lunas could be an important game for 6A seeding purposes and for the 2-6A district standings.

According to the New Mexico Activities Association master schedule, the last three regular season games are Saturday afternoon, with Artesia at Mayfield, Valencia visiting Albuquerque Academy and Atrisco Heritage facing Eldorado. Those are Nov. 2.