New Mexico has no major league professional sports teams, though Albuquerque does have a minor league baseball team in the Class-AAA Pacific Coast League. Thoroughbred and quarter-horse racing with pari-mutuel betting is an important spectator sport. Sunland Park, south of Las Cruces, has a winterlong schedule. From May to August there is racing and betting at Ruidoso Downs, Sun Ray Park, and the Downs at Albuquerque.
The Lobos of the University of New Mexico compete in the Mountain West Conference, while the Aggies of New Mexico State belong to the Big West Conference. New Mexico State finished third in the 1970 NCAA basketball tournament.
Other annual sporting events include the Great Overland Windsail Race in Lordsburg in June, the Silver City RPCA Wild, Wild West Rodeo Week in Gila in June, and the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque in October.