The UTEP Miners are currently the longest tenured member of Conference USA, playing 25-straight seasons in the league from 2005 through 2025. However, those two decades of stability are finally exchanged for a new horizon on July 1, 2026 when UTEP joins the Mountain West Conference.
UTEP is one of three new entrants to the Mountain West in 2026 and the lone one hailing from the CUSA. Northern Illinois joins from the MAC, while FCS powerhouse North Dakota State finally makes the jump the FBS. Rounding out the 10-team league are the seven incumbent members that are not leaving for the Pac-12 — Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, and Wyoming.
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It’s a new crop of opponents for the Miners, and they learned what their 2026 journey will look like during the March 9 schedule reveal. Led by third-year head coach Scotty Walden, here is UTEP’s inaugural football schedule as a Mountain West member:
2026 UTEP schedule
Week
Date
Opponent
Location
1
Sat, Sept. 5
at Oklahoma*
Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium — Norman, OK
2
Sat, Sept. 12
vs. Texas Southern (FCS)*
Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
3
Sat, Sept. 19
at Michigan*
Michigan Stadium — Ann Arbor, MI
4
Sat, Sept. 26
vs. Oregon State*
Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
5
Sat, Oct. 3
at New Mexico
University Stadium — Albuquerque, NM
6
Sat, Oct. 10
vs. Nevada
Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
7
Sat, Oct. 17
vs. San Jose State
Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
8
Sat, Oct. 24
BYE
9
Sat, Oct. 31
at North Dakota State
Fargodome — Fargo, ND
10
Sat, Nov. 7
vs. Hawaii
Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
11
Sat, Nov. 14
vs. Wyoming
Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
12
Sat, Nov. 21
at Air Force
Falcon Stadium — Colorado Springs, CO
13
Sat, Nov. 28
at Northern Illinois
Huskie Stadium — DeKalb, IL
14
Fri, Dec. 4 or Sat, Dec. 5
Mountain West Championship Game
TBD — Campus Site of Best Conference Record
* denotes non-conference game
Schedule notes and trivia
The Mountain West is the first conference to release a schedule and not confirm its championship date. The Mountain West Championship Game is slated for either Friday, Dec. 4 or Saturday, Dec. 5. The Mountain West played its 2024 and 2025 title games on a Friday but played its 2013 through 2023 title games on a Saturday. Currently, the Big 12 and Pac-12 have their championship games on Friday night, while the ACC, American, SEC, and Big Ten are kicking theirs off Saturday. Three leagues have yet to announce theirs — Conference USA (has been on Friday since 2020), Sun Belt (has been on Friday since 2025), and MAC (has been on Saturday since 2021).
All 12 of UTEP’s 2026 games are currently slated for Saturday. In fact, the only Mountain West team to have a non-Saturday game scheduled is San Jose State, which travels to Eastern Michigan on Friday night of Week 1. At the current moment, this is a change of pace for the conference which traditionally played frequent Friday night conference games. For UTEP, it would be the Miners’ first exclusive Saturday season since 2019.
UTEP’s timezone breakdown in their inaugural Mountain West season: 1 game in Eastern Time Zone, 3 games in Central Time Zone (6 home, 2 road), and 8 games in Mountain Time Zone.
UTEP plays three first-time FBS opponents in 2026 — Michigan and Oregon State in non-conference play and North Dakota State in Mountain West play. New FBS member North Dakota State is the only Mountain West opponent that UTEP has never played before.
UNLV is the only Mountain West opponent UTEP will not play in 2026.
The Miners’ Mountain West opener is a road trip at New Mexico. This will be the 81st meeting between the familiar opponents. New Mexico leads the all-time series 44-33-3, with a previous matchup as recently as 2022.
The regular season finale is not UTEP’s first trip to DeKalb, IL. The Miners faced Northern Illinois on Sept. 28, 1996 and defeated the Huskies, 37-6.
