The UTEP football team begins the October mid-week games portion of the schedule Thursday against Sam Houston in the Sun Bowl, and count Miner coach Scotty Walden as a fan of the prime-time, nationally televised games to come.

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Should UTEP be extended an invitation and opts to leave Conference USA, the MWC would have eight members with seven holding full-time status (Hawai'i is a football-only member). The NCAA requires eight full members for a league to be recognized as an FBS conference.

Conference realignment chaos continues and this time UTEP is said to be in the mix of universities that could be changing conferences. Ever since the Pac-12 snagged four universities from the Mountain West Conference and left the MWC in need of new members,

The Mountain West Conference is in deep discussions about adding UTEP, an obvious target for the league both from both a geography and tradition standpoint, as a full member, sources told ESPN on Monday,