NMSU-UTEP rivalry going dark after Miners join MWC, but optimism exists for future games

The Battle of I-10 football game between New Mexico State and UTEP will not be played in 2026, UTEP officials have told KTSM's Sam Guzman. It was first reported by Guzman on KTSM's July 14 evening local news show.

KTSM, NBC's local news affiliate in the El Paso-Las Cruces media market, also reported that UTEP athletic director Jim Senter told them it could take "several years" to bring the rivalry back after 2025.

Currently, the Miners only have three non-conference games scheduled for 2026 against Oklahoma, Texas Southern and Michigan. However, UTEP deputy athletic director Jeff Darby told the Sun-News they are working on a fourth non-conference game for next season that isn't NM State.

NEW: Battle of I-10 rivals UTEP and New Mexico State will not play each other in football in 2026, university officials tell KTSM.

Both programs had their non-conference schedule built out for the '26 season prior to UTEP's decision to move to the Mountain West.

Both sides are… pic.twitter.com/RyMh5z5uiH

— Sam Guzman (@SamGuzmanTV) July 15, 2025

"We have been working on a fourth non-conference opponent for 2026, so our non-conference schedule for the 2026 football season is full," Darby said. "We are not ready to announce the fourth opponent at this time."

Yet another rivalry that will be impacted by conference realignment, the Miners and Aggies won't be in Conference USA together after the former joins the Mountain West Conference on July 1, 2026. UTEP and NM State played each other in out-of-conference games for the majority of the 21st century until the Aggies entered CUSA in 2023. This won't be the case after 2025, at least in the immediate future.

Darby says UTEP is interested in playing the Aggies from 2027 onwards. However, NM State's non-conference slate is already full for 2027, with road games against Texas, New Mexico and Northern Illinois and a home game against Hawaii scheduled. The NCAA has a "Hawaii rule" that allows schools to add a 13th regular-season game if Hawaii appears on their schedule, but it only applies if the game is played in Hawaii. The UNM-NMSU game will be played in 2027. The Sun-News has reached out to Texas, Hawaii and NIU to ask if all plan on facing the Aggies in 2027.

NM State acting athletic director Amber Burdge told the Las Cruces Sun-News she's had several discussions with UTEP officials on extending the rivalry past the Miners' MWC entry year, including in-person meetings for lunch. Burdge says she is "absolutely interested" in playing UTEP and she hopes games can be scheduled as soon as possible.

"As soon as we can get it on the schedule, we intend to put it on the schedule," Burdge said.

Darby has also expressed strong interest in continuing the Aggies-Miners series.

"We are interested in continuing to play NMSU in football from 2027 onwards, but that would also be predicated on mutual interest from NMSU," Darby said. "Again, we are interested in continuing to play NMSU in football."

Burdge says the biggest challenges would be finding common open dates with UTEP in future years and making sure NM State doesn't violate contracts with CUSA or other out-of-conference schools already scheduled. She also says it would be difficult to schedule the rivalry immediately after UTEP's CUSA exit due to pre-existing non-conference slates scheduled before the Miners announced they will be joining the MWC.

"We might have an open opportunity, (but) it doesn't necessarily match when UTEP has an open opportunity. We're trying to get this together as quickly as we can," Burdge said. "It's more of a story than it actually is, because we stopped putting them on the schedule because we were part of a conference together.

"This is exclusively a product of scheduling in advance in football for your non-conference games, and now that UTEP doesn't have us to play and we don't have UTEP to play in a Conference USA game, they move into that non-conference conversation for us, and they haven't been there in a few years."

Darby says the Miners-Aggies rivalry continuing in non-football sports after the 2025-26 sports season would be "up to the head coaches in those sports." KTSM says UTEP officials told them the rivalry "should still be on" for non-football sports, and Burdge says there's a greater chance the Battle of I-10 continues in non-football sports due to the increased flexibility in scheduling non-conference games for them.

"The nature of scheduling for all of those sports is different," Burdge said. "It's not such a future-forward schedule. I would say that it's a much better chance in all of our other sports... Outside of it simply being the rivalry, it's a non-conference opponent that makes sense."

Aggies football coach Tony Sanchez says he'd like to play UTEP under the right circumstances. Sanchez says NM State will always play one Group of Five school outside of rival New Mexico every year, and is hopeful that it can be UTEP.

"Obviously, we'd like to play it, but it needs to fit into our schedule," Sanchez said. "We are going to play a (power conference) school, UNM, an FCS school and a Group of Five school each year. It would be great if it's UTEP."

The last time UTEP and NM State did not meet was in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the last time the two schools didn't play each other without a worldwide health disaster stopping them was 2003. The Miners and Aggies have played each other 101 times in football since their first matchup in 1914, with the former holding a 60–39–2 advantage.

UTEP earned its 60th victory over NM State last season in Las Cruces. The Miners and Aggies face off in El Paso, TX, this season on Nov. 22.

"This is something that, yes, we are aligned on. We do agree," Burdge said. "Rivalries are good for both fan bases and communities, so we like this. We want this to continue. It's just we've got to do it when we're not violating a contract that's already signed."

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Battle of I-10 ceasefire: NMSU-UTEP football pausing after 2025