CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The University of Texas at El Paso Miners are officially set to become the eighth and newest members of the Mountain West Conference. As soon as the five defecting member schools lost to the Pac-12 depart in 2026, UTEP will join as the final necessary school to ensure the conference retains NCAA eligibility.
Because Hawaii is not officially a full-time member school and only participates in football, the conference will officially only consist of seven full-time schools presently. Therefore, it is still likely that the Mountain West seeks out additional schools to deepen the in-conference pool that teams can schedule competition with.
As for now, though, Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement announcing the partnership that this moment represents a crucial next step in strategic membership initiatives.
“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,” Nevarez said. “We welcome and look forward to competing against the student athletes of UTEP.”
UTEP will become the newest and only member school out of Texas, but it isn’t the first MW school based out of the state. Most notably, Texas Christian University, or TCU, left the Mountain West in 2012. The conference’s history with Texas and UTEP goes even further, though, as all seven current member schools also competed against UTEP as part of the Western Athletic Conference.
UTEP President Heather Wilson said in the MW release that this decision was informed on the desires of, and will greatly benefit, the fans and students of El Paso.
“We look forward to rekindling former rivalries and welcoming teams and their fans to El Paso,” Wilson said.
As the entire country’s leading Hispanic-serving institution, the Miners currently compete in men’s and women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s and women’s cross-country, football, golf, rifle, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball and men’s and women’s track and field. The school’s most important athletic achievement is no doubt the Miners’ historic 1966 basketball championship victory over Kentucky.
Now, UTEP will be able to continue to achieve in athletics, this time attached to the storied MW logo.
