The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Miners will officially join the Mountain West Conference in 2026, it was announced on Tuesday.
UTEP will officially join the Mountain West on July 1, 2026 and will compete in the conference in all sports.
“We are excited to welcome The University of Texas at El Paso to the Mountain West as the next step in our strategic membership initiatives,” said MW Commissioner Gloria Nevarez. “The addition of UTEP restores historic rivalries with several of our member institutions within the geographic footprint and provides valuable exposure in the great State of Texas. We welcome and look forward to competing against the student-athletes of UTEP.”
The addition of UTEP will bring the rebuilding Mountain West’s membership roster up to seven full members and eight football-playing schools. UTEP will join Air Force, Hawaii (football only), Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, and Wyoming.
“There’s no doubt this will be better for our student-athletes, our fans, and for El Paso,” said UTEP President Heather Wilson. “We look forward to rekindling former rivalries and welcoming teams and their fans to El Paso.”
UTEP has competed in Conference USA since 2005. The Miners were previously members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) from 1968 through 2004.
“We are honored to be invited to the Mountain West Conference,” said UTEP Vice President and Director of Athletics Jim Senter. “I know the Miners will feel right at home with the other quality athletic programs in this great conference.”
The Mountain West now only needs to add one additional full member to its roster to meet the NCAA requirement of eight members. Reports have indicated that the conference is in discussions with the Texas State Bobcats of the Sun Belt Conference, as well as the Tarleton State Texans from the United Athletic Conference in the FCS.
Sources: Texas State officials have received a verbal offer to join the Mountain West. A decision is expected in the upcoming days, as the talks continue. The Pac-12 has also expressed interest, but that has yet to yield an offer.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 28, 2024
The Mountain West has held deep and serious discussions with FCS Tarleton State, sources tell @YahooSports. MWC needs one more full member to qualify as a conference.
Talks between the Texas-based FCS school and the conference have progressed.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 1, 2024
Early last month, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State each accepted offers to join the Pac-12 Conference in 2026. Then last week, the Utah State Aggies followed suit and announced their eventual move from the Mountain West to the Pac-12.
This move feels overdue, should have happened about 10 years ago.
I hope NMSU joins them.
I agree. I hope they bring in New Mexico St. too.
Being a New Mexico fan, I agree with Evan’s comment that this should have happened over 10 years ago. I also think
New Mexico State should be invited as well. I definitely think UTEP should have been added before ANY of the add ons were added; of which, over half of those have left or are leaving anyways.
Before the argument begins about NMSU being so inferior; answer the question: What was so superior about Utah State over NMSU when they came into the MW. Granted, they are much better today, but they were about the same as NMSU when they came onto the MW.
If both NMSU and UTEP are added, the Mountain West could market the “Rio Grande Rivalry.” That could take the place of the “Border War” which is gone from MW since CSU is chasing after more money and recognition from the PAC cloud.
Welcome to Mountain West UTEP.
New Mexico State should join the MW too.
It has been over 70 years since UNM, NMSU and UTEP were all in the same conference.
Anything is possible
On second thoughts New Mexico State would make a nice fit to Mountain West.
This is a worthless addition as UTEP doesn’t bring anything to the table football wise and football drives conferences.
This seems like a throw a handful of mud at the wall and take what sticks. Now if UTSA and Texas State would have joined,the MW have had a slim chance but UTEP is not bringing anything to a new TV deal.
Texas State and UTSA don’t want to go to a worse conference. UTEP does want to go to a better conference.
I keep telling all of you. The merger among the Mountain West schools, Oregon State, Washington State, New Mexico State, and UTEP is happening. Now that Gonzaga joins this frame, both the pods and divisions are easier to align.
All that we do is replace Hawaii (football only) with Gonzaga (non-football) in Pod B (mentioned below). Problem solved!
Mountain Division = (Pod A) Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, and Wyoming + (Pod D) New Mexico, New Mexico State, Utah State, and UTEP
Pacific Division = (Pod B) Fresno State, Gonzaga (non-football), Hawaii (football only), San Diego State, and San Jose State + (Pod C) Nevada, UNLV, Oregon State, and Washington State
The Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC) absorbs and revives the Pac-12 as a 16-team league via this realignment. #BackthePac
Gross. And incredibly unbalance. But Utah State would dominate that pod so I guess their fans would be happy.
The Myth of a Revived P.A.Conference has lured Boise State, Fresno State, SanDSU, Utah State, CO State from a competitive Dependent 5 MW, competitive with the AAC, SunBelt, for strongest contender for the 1 Dependent Conference Invite to the BCS Properties, LLC “playoffs”.
To check my BCS Properties, LLC holding company claim put in the keywords ‘BCS history wikipedia’ & the article with footnotes to it’s sources comes up.
Now, neither the Mythological PAC12 nor the Rump MW is a strong contender for the 1 Invite from 2026 on.
Two weak Western Conferences have less access to Playoff Money.
Only an undefeated season by a 2026 PAC member gives them a high CHANCE to be ‘the one’ selected.
Boise State’s last 2 undefeated seasons; 2006:13-0, 2009: 14-0, were BCS seasons so the Broncos had zero access to Trust 6 Football “select committee matchup 1 vs 2”.
Boise State has been the best program in the MW since joining in 2011.
How many undefeated seasons have they achieved since then?
Zero
They’ve had no access to the one of 4 Slots reserved for an ‘undefeated Dependent 5 Conf. qualifier’.
SFA and Eastern Washington should be considered, NMSU is in their pursuit, but I would love a 11 team MW again
EWU doesn’t have the budget to move up to FBS unfortunately.
UTEP and SJSU already have games scheduled home-and-away for Sept in 2026 & 2027. So they will need to convert it to MWC games??
The series will be canceled and they will play in conference, probably not on those dates.
Any word on talks with NMSU? That’d make 100% sense
only geographically, not for FB or media market, since the MW already has NM and now UTEP, so NMSt doesn’t bring anything new to get a better media deal. remember money is driving this realignment
As of October 1, at 8 PM, Texas State ended talks with the MWC and will stay as a Sun Belt member.
If the PAC 12 was interested, that’s a better destination. Especially if UNT and UTSA join the PAC. Getting into Texas though is what the PAC should have done 20 years ago.