The 2016 New Mexico Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 17, 2016 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The eleventh annual New Mexico Bowl, was one of the 2016–17 bowl games that concluded the 2016 FBS football season. The game aired on ESPN. Sponsored by clothing company Gildan Activewear, the game was officially known as the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.

The game featured the New Mexico Lobos of the Mountain West Conference against the UTSA Roadrunners of Conference USA.

This was the third meeting between the schools, with the all-time series tied at 1–1. The previous meeting was on October 14, 2014, where the Lobos defeated the Roadrunners by a score of 21–9.

The New Mexico Bowl was the first bowl appearance for the Roadrunners.

Powered by a triple option offense, the Lobos were led by coach Bob Davie who envisioned the offense he eventually installed while coaching at Notre Dame and playing against the service academies, who used the scheme effectively. The Lobos' offense led the Football Bowl Subdivision in rushing yards. Although both Austin Apodaca and Lamar Jordan had both started at quarterback for New Mexico during the season, Jordan was the more potent runner, whose 658 rushing yards ranked third on the team. A trio of running backs made large contributions to the rushing attack: senior Teriyon Gipson averaged 9.2 yards per rush to lead the team with 1209 yards, sophomore Tyrone Owens led the team with 134 rushes for 1084 yards, and junior Richard McQuarley rushed for a team-leading 16 touchdowns.

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