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This episode was recorded Sept. 1, 2026.
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Diego Mendoza-Moyers: UTEP is now in the Mountain West Conference.
Following an intensive, multi-million-dollar fundraising campaign, the university in July exited Conference USA, where it spent 21 years but found relatively little success in athletics. Now, UTEP will get a chance to compete against some higher-profile conference opponents, like UNLV and University of New Mexico.
We’re well into a new era of college sports, with athletes commanding big paydays to play for a school and player transfers in and out of a program more common than ever. Some argue the new pay for play system makes it harder for lower-tier schools like UTEP to capture some magic and have a breakout season in almost any sport. Others say the money element of college sports now can help schools emerge from longtime mediocrity; just look at UNM, which has won 14 games in football over the last two years after a previous run of futility. UTEP, by comparison, has five wins over the last two seasons.
So, why did UTEP have to raise several million dollars to go to a different athletic conference? Now that money is such a huge part of college sports, how does UTEP stack up financially against its new competition? And what should El Pasoans expect from the hometown team going forward in the Mountain West?
I’m excited to talk all things UTEP and Mountain West in just a moment with Steve Kaplowitz and Adrian Broaddus, the hosts of the SportsTalk and MinerTalk shows on ESPN 600 El Paso.
But first, this El Paso Matters Podcast episode is brought to you by our podcast title sponsor Tawney, Acosta and Chaparro, truck crash and injury attorneys. Their team of local, seasoned trial attorneys are ready to help if you’ve been injured in a crash.
And you can sign up for our newsletter or read our free reporting at elpasomatters.org, where you can also learn about and register for our 9.15K run that’s coming up on September 19th.
Steve, Adrian, thank you guys for joining me.
Adrian Broaddus: Thanks for having us, Diego.
Steve Kaplowitz: Yeah, it’s great to be back.
Diego: And before we get into it, I do want to say, Adrian, we met at Franklin High School. I got you to join the journalism program at Franklin. I was your editor of the Franklin Chronicle before you took over being the editor.
And before me was Mauricio Casillas as my editor, who I just want to give a big shout out – he’s coming back to El Paso from (Washington) D.C. to anchor the KVIA evening news here in a few weeks.
And, so, I just have to say, man, the legacy of the Franklin Chronicle is strong in El Paso. We’ve got good journalism. EPISD is on some hard times right now, but I have to shout them out for producing some good journalism products.
Adrian: Who says journalism is dead in El Paso?
Diego: Exactly. So, just wanted to shout out our guy Mauricio and say thanks to Adrian for having me here at the KROD studio.
Steve: Diego, did you also hit me up on Facebook asking for an internship like Adrian did when you were at Franklin? And I didn’t see it, and years later he told me about it, and that’s when I read it for the first time.
Diego: Oh, that’s hilarious. I didn’t know that. I didn’t do that. I didn’t go into sports journalism, so this was more of a side gig than my main gig. So, anyways – but yes, I just wanted to do that shout out.
But appreciate you guys joining me. Just wanted to try to focus a little bit on UTEP’s transition to the Mountain West Conference. It’s been interesting for me to watch. It seems like UTEP has just had to raise many, many millions of dollars for this transition. They’re having to pay the players now big sums of money. Seems like it’s just a money game, college athletics now.
And, so, I just kind of want to dig into some of this. But I’m just curious (for) your guys’ overall take on UTEP transitioning to the Mountain West? They’re kind of getting going. Some of the sports have started. How are you guys viewing their transition so far to the Mountain West?
Steve: Well, to me, it’s better late than never, because we’ve been talking about this really ever since they broke apart in 1998. And the idea that UTEP was left behind, which bothered a lot of us at the time, because they were at the top of the (Western Athletic Conference) when the WAC was a large conference. And they were, essentially, I don’t want to say asleep at the wheel, but when the discussions to really form the Mountain West were in its infancy, UTEP was never part of that. They were left out.
And it upset a lot of us that half of the WAC leaving just put UTEP behind. And we’ve always wondered, “Well, why can’t UTEP get into the Mountain West?” We heard rumors that they had been trying for years and offers had come their way and Diana Natalicio wanted to stay with the Texas schools and turned down opportunities over the years. And we don’t necessarily know how factual that really is because she’s no longer with us. But those stories have leaked out since ’98.
So, I think the fact that they’re finally in now, even though the Mountain West doesn’t resemble what it was like almost 30 years ago when they formed, it’s still better right now than Conference USA. And Adrian, he’ll be the first to tell you that we’ve joked about “When can UTEP finally get out of Conference USA and go into the Mountain West?” And now here we are.
Adrian: Think about the previous league. I mean, Conference USA was about to be dissolving. Like, they were about to lose (themselves) as a conference a handful of years ago when they first had the initial wave of teams leave. And when conference realignment first happened, Conference USA was the first casualty that had so many teams wanting to leave their conference. And it’s because of their geographic lack of identity.
There’s teams all over the place. And that first wave was, like, Marshall, Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and they all go to the Sun Belt (Conference). Then the next wave is, like, Rice, North Texas, and all of those who go to the American Athletic (Conference), and UTSA.
And by the time that was happening, Steve, we were arguing, like, these are lower level programs, like Rice, and maybe you can even throw in the conversation North Texas that are kind of going over UTEP. They’re lapping UTEP in the pecking order of all these different conferences.
And then, Conference USA became a stepping-stone conference. It was, like, FCS transition conference. So, all the FCS conference teams came in and oh, by the way, they beat UTEP in all the meaningful money-making sports.
Diego: Yeah, I don’t know how excited El Pasoans are to go watch Delaware or Kennesaw State or Jacksonville State. Which some of these schools that beat UTEP, right? But don’t – they’re not real prominent college football programs, I guess, or basketball or anything.
But I wonder, just for listeners less familiar with college athletics, like, how do you guys think of the upside of UTEP entering the Mountain West?
Steve: I think that, like everything, if they win, there’s tremendous upside. There was upside in Conference USA if UTEP could win because they would be a more valuable school, more valuable commodity around college athletics. Now, they’re into the Mountain West, so, really the winning aspect is now just focused around this particular league.
But think about this, OK? We talk about upside. My favorite example is UTEP volleyball. And the reason is they are the most successful program on campus right now. And what happened over the last eight months? Well, you had a dentist, a very prominent dentist in Dr. Bob McFadden, who was here on the Westside. He’s no longer practicing, but he was so caught up with the success of UTEP volleyball he made a $1 million donation to fix up Memorial Gym.
And now they debuted it against New Mexico State over the weekend on Sunday night. You have a state-of-the-art sound system, LED lights so they could put a light show together, brand-new seating, brand-new floor. All of this money thanks to one individual that was so taken by the success, he wanted to give.
Imagine if football can win or basketball can win? And people like Dr. McFadden will all want to start giving more and more and more to not just bring in better players, but fix up the facilities, make UTEP what it should be. I mean, to me, volleyball is a great case study of what could happen if and when UTEP football and basketball are successful.
Adrian: And the other thing I would say is you’ve got to think about your next generation of fans. That’s the one part I would think about, too, is you’ve got to have an investment in that next wave. And I feel like students had no identification with any Conference USA teams. And I think it was harder to make – it was a harder sell to get students out there.
I mean, you were playing games on weeknights. So, how are you going to get students out there for Conference USA weeknight games in football? For men’s basketball games, there were no students, virtually, the last couple years.
So, in my eyes, I’m like, how do you get the students back and how do you get the next generation of fans into UTEP sports? And I think you play more meaningful games. You play on meaningful channels where it’s accessible for people to watch. And I think that’s a big deal of this, too, is you’re thinking about the future for the Mountain West, not these next three years, which I think UTEP is going to struggle in the money-making sports. I think football is going to be tough. I think men’s basketball, it’s going to be tougher as well. But I think for the long haul and the different teams that you can end up facing, I think it’s a good investment in the future of their fan base.
Diego: Yeah, and I want to get into the competitive stuff in a bit. But it has me thinking about at University of New Mexico that UTEP is going to be competing against, they’ve got the Pit, right? Kind of this renowned fan experience at their basketball games. And I just wonder if maybe UTEP can rise to that level at some point of the kind of passion. Obviously, Albuquerque, I think, is a comparable market to El Paso. Maybe a little bit larger, a little bit wealthier, but generally kind of a similar city. So, I’ll be curious to see how the UTEP fandom compares to UNM.
But you guys alluded to this. I really want to get into the money part of this because it just seems like I just see headline after headline, donation after donation, millions and millions of dollars that UTEP has raised.
And, so, like, just what is all this money for? Can you just talk about all this money they’ve had to raise to go to Mountain West?
Steve: Well, first off, the money that they raised covered a couple of different areas. They didn’t receive money from Conference USA once they announced that they were going to leave the conference. So, money they would normally generate from the league, they were not getting it. And there was a buyout on top of that in which they had to pay Conference USA to leave to go into the Mountain West.
So, some of this money raised was to cover the lack of revenue that they weren’t going to receive and had to cover the buyout and the money they would normally make. And then, when you go into the Mountain West, you need money to fix up the facilities. Because the Mountain West said, “Fix up the locker rooms, make this improvement, make that improvement. We’re not going to just allow you to come in with the facilities the way they are. We have certain expectations.”
So, a lot of this money raised has really helped cover that on top of trying to give the coaches enough resources to recruit better.
Diego: And let me just jump in, Adrian. What kind of money are we talking about from what you guys have seen for all of these different things you’re talking about?
Adrian: Well, first off, it’s catch-up money. Just to piggyback off what Steve’s saying is, like, if you’re a listener who’s trying to understand this, a lot of this is to catch-up for the money that they weren’t receiving from Conference USA, like he was mentioning right there.
And then you also need to catch up on the facilities. The facilities, if you’re an outsider, if you never have walked into the Sun Bowl or never walked into the Don Haskins Center, you’d be surprised that while – I mean, you walk into the Sun Bowl, it’s beautiful, no doubt. But there are some outdated parts of it that desperately need modifications and renovations.
Like, the Don Haskins Center had places or things that they needed major uplifts or major upgrades to. So, when we ask or when you ask, like, where does the money come from or where did the money go? Like, a lot of this money is catch-up money. A lot of this money is privately funded donors. Like, they go out to their donors, their fan base, and they ask them, “Hey, can you donate to help us? “
And they had this “Climb Higher” initiative that I’m sure Steve can jump into, a $10 million initiative that they were trying to raise money for. And it was largely donated by the same donors who continuously donate to UTEP year over year.
Steve: And they got close. I think it was about $8.5 million of the $10 million. So, they were right there. But they’ve also been able to get a lot of people joining the Miner Athletic Club, which is their chief fundraising arm. They had a certain number of donors they were trying to achieve. They basically hit that mark. So, the good news is, for $100 you could be a donor to UTEP. So, it’s not expensive. And then it just goes up from there. But there’s so many different buckets.
Look, the Don Haskins Center, I grew up there. It’s my second home. It’s a 50-year-old arena. They don’t have club seats. They don’t have suites. They’ve got the courtside, but there’s a lot of amenities that all the new facilities have that they lack. And the sound system sounds old. And they don’t have LED lighting yet, although we hear that that’s coming.
So, they’ve got to upgrade it. We’re not getting a Downtown arena anytime soon. So, if that’s the case, take what you have and make it more modern to where it has some of those amenities.
Adrian: And I feel like there are people who don’t go to any sporting events who still use these facilities. I’m talking concerts and also graduations. Let’s not forget about the graduation side of it, which is a big deal for the Don Haskins Center to bring in tons of people who never go into any of the basketball games and they get a chance to experience.
Two of the things that they really need to fix, like, in the next year, maybe handful of years: the bathrooms. You’ve got to make it more family-friendly. I mean, you’re a father of a young one, Diego. So, it’s like you’ve got to think about having it to where you’re fan-conducive for families. So, that’s an upgrade that has to be there for the Haskins Center and the Sun Bowl, desperately.
And then the Wi-Fi situation. I mean, it’s a safety hazard. Like, you need to have the accessible Wi-Fi for these larger-scale events because you have kids running around, you have families running around. After the concert, before the concert, after the game you’re trying to order an Uber. Forget about it. You don’t have signal unless you walk maybe a half-a-mile away from the stadium itself.
Diego: Yeah, that’s all interesting stuff. Good examples of the money. One thing, too: I heard Scotty Walden talking on your guys’ station with John Teicher, I think last week. And he mentioned that, I believe it was just the football program, raised $3.5 million. And, so, again, like, is that to pay the players? Like, what is all this for? And it just seems like you never hear of UTEP and so many millions of dollars coming in. It’s been kind of staggering all the money that they’ve raised.
Steve: Yeah, they have to raise the money for roster configuration, whether it’s bringing in talent from the portal or keeping the existing talent. Because, the fact is, if (quarterback) EJ Colson has a terrific year this year, he’s going to be a $1 million quarterback in order to try to keep or just you won’t even be able to keep him.
And that’s the other thing where people have to understand now is this: UTEP essentially is becoming a junior college. And what I mean by that is their primary function is develop talent with the idea that if somebody is good, they’re gone. They’re not staying. And it’s not as if it’s a UTEP problem. This is a college athletics problem. This happens in every school around the country. Power fours, group of fives, mid-majors, whatever. If you’re good, you’re probably going to be gone.
So, even if you can’t afford to keep your best players, well then you can bring in the next one and try to develop them and continue that pipeline. But It’s just sad that college athletics has changed so much and fans can no longer watch players and get used to the same last names on the back of the jerseys. All they can really do is get used to the front, which is the team, because that’s the only thing that’s not going to change year after year.
Adrian: So, let’s say if that $3.5 million is a lot more than this past year. Let’s say, hypothetically, this roster is built with $1.5 million.
Diego: For this upcoming season?
Adrian: For this upcoming 2026 season. But if they have $3.5 million going into the 2027 roster, we’re talking about a lot more money going into UTEP’s way. But what’s going to be first? A UTEP player who’s making $1 million or a UTEP coach that makes over $1 million annually in his salary?
So, I think those are things to realistically think about right now. And I actually think the player is going to come first. I think we’re getting there. If you think about that $3.5 million that could go to next year’s roster, maybe you save half of it for retention and then you use the other half to go out and get yourself more players in the transfer portal.
Diego: Yeah. And can you guys talk more about sort of roster construction in this era of paying players? And I wonder, especially Steve, I mean, can you speak to maybe – you’ve been following UTEP for a long time, 10, 20 years ago, like, how different you’ve seen this dynamic play out where they’re paying players? And does it create an opportunity for UTEP to catch lightning in a bottle, bring some guys in and win? Or do you think it’s harder for UTEP to be successful in this era?
Steve: Much harder right now than it was. In the past, you used to be able – first off, a lot of things have changed. In the beginning, you had in recruiting, you could find diamonds in the rough. We didn’t have scouting services. We didn’t have the internet. So, essentially, if you did your homework, you could have connections to bring in players that other schools didn’t know about and try to develop them.
There are no secrets anymore. Everybody is either connected to a recruiting service or they’re promoting themselves on social media. So, for the most part, there is no such thing anymore of finding those diamonds in the rough. If somebody has had a halfway decent career, everybody knows about them. So, that’s the first difference.
And then the second difference is just the money that’s part of it. So, for example, let’s just take UTEP basketball right now because it’s the easiest example. They have more money in their player acquisition fund – that’s the best way to put it – than they’ve had before. They had $600,000 a year ago, now they’re at $2 million.
But if, let’s say, you want a high-profile big man, right? That’s a $1 million player. $1 million. So, one player could be half of their budget. Or let’s say you want a difference-maker as a point guard. That’s a $1 million player. Those two are the most expensive positions coming up in terms of college basketball. So, point guards are a million, big men are a million. Well, let’s say you get yourself $1 million point guard and $1 million big man. There’s your entire budget. What are you going to do with the rest of your roster?
So, that’s where things have really changed right now. So, some schools like UTEP might go smaller and realize “We can’t bring in a 7-footer. Let’s go get a 6-7, 6-8, 6-9 player and have them be a little undersized. But we’re going to stockpile twos, threes, and fours, meaning shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards and that’s going to be our strong point.” So, I mean, it’s just – that’s the hardest part, is schools are having to now look at their rosters completely different for each of the programs.
Adrian: You’re going to have to navigate what’s the best position available for you? And I think this is making it to where coaches are not necessarily coaching to a system anymore. They’re coaching to players’ strengths. Like, the coaches who are going to be the best and the most successful throughout all of this are going to be the ones who can adapt to their players themselves, but also who can adapt to the salary cap, the roster salary cap and stuff like that. Who can understand how to manipulate all the money, but also manipulate the money to the point where you can actually have success with all these different positions.
Diego: Yeah. And it seems like if you’re a coach like Scotty Walden, you’re searching for players in all sorts of different places, whether it’s from high school or, we say FCS, which is sort of like the smaller schools around the country, right? Or even the junior college transfers, or maybe you’re trying to pick off a guy from another school. I think UTEP has a few guys from, like, a running back from University of Buffalo, and then I think another guy from West Virginia.
So, it seems like you’re trying to scout at all these different levels and try to pick guys off and see who you can afford. And it’s kind of an interesting, like, asset allocation game now where, where do you direct the funds? Do you go, “Oh, let’s beef up our offensive line” or “Let’s get a great quarterback,” like you’re saying. And, so, it seems like it’s kind of this game of, like, how do you spread the money across the whole roster? And then who can you even convince to come here, too, right? Like, there’s other schools with a lot of money, too, bidding on players, right?
Adrian: And I would also really quick say the market dictates a lot of this. So, let’s say everybody’s going out and starting to spend a lot of money on quarterbacks. Well, the market’s going to dictate quarterbacks are more expensive. Like, Steve was saying for big men or for point guards. If the market drives up for those types of guys, those are going to be the most premium expensive types of players. So, the market will dictate everything.
And now we’re having to deal with agents, like NIL agents. You’re having to deal with parents, you’re having to deal with family members. There’s a lot of different priorities on this pecking order right here. Think about EJ Colson, right? Maybe let’s say he’s making some good money on UTEP, hypothetically. He moved his whole family from Georgia to El Paso, Texas. Like, they made the trip. They’re all living in El Paso. And you could do those things now with NIL. You have the kind of disposable funds to do that.
Diego: And he might only – he’s the quarterback for UTEP, the new quarterback this year. He might be here for less than a year, right?
Adrian: Yeah, exactly.
Steve: But do you know what? On the flip side, Tavorus Jones, great high school football player in El Paso, goes to Missouri. Not really used much during his time at Missouri. And we were speculating and saying, “You know what? He would be perfect at UTEP. Here’s a chance to come back home, play in front of your friends and family, have an opportunity to be the number one running back for the Miners and finish your career with a special season.”
Well, guess what? That’s exactly what happened. He went into the transfer portal, came back to UTEP. Now, he’s projected to be their starting running back. It’s a great story.
And the truth is, UTEP did the right thing. They brought him home. They got him back here and now he’s got a chance to shine. So, in this system, sometimes when you leave El Paso, you’re a star. Look at LJ Martin from BYU. Classic example there. But other times, you go away and you’re caught in a numbers game and suddenly you’re a second- or third-string player. Why not come back here, play for the home school, have a chance to make something of your career? And that’s what I’m hoping Tavorus can really do here this season.
Diego: Yeah. One thing I want to get into is we’ve talked about how much money UTEP’s raised. But they’re going into a higher profile conference playing schools like University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and then also I mentioned University of New Mexico and other schools as well that are a little bit higher profile than, again, some of the, like, let’s face it, kind of low profile schools that are in Conference USA, right? I don’t want to be too disrespectful, but, like, Delaware, I mean, the Blue Hens, like, who’s ever heard of them, right, as far as their college athletic program other than Joe Flacco?
But I just wonder, how does UTEP stack up financially against these new teams they’re going to be competing against?
Steve: Well, first off, let’s talk about New Mexico, because that’s the classic rivalry we all grew up with: Lobos, Miners, if you’re a certain age, if you’re my age or a little younger, that’s kind of what we all knew prior to the split in 1998.
New Mexico football was just as irrelevant as UTEP, if not more, over the years. Nobody went to the games. They couldn’t win a game. They were, essentially, a non-factor. They hire the right coach. They turn things around. They win. They bring in another coach after this one leaves and now they continue to win. Suddenly, community money is there. They’re bringing in better players. And New Mexico football has become relevant for the first time in God knows how long.
That’s a great example that if UTEP was able to find the right coach with the right staff and the right talent, they could win. And then all of a sudden, the Sun Bowl goes from 10,000 fans a game to 35,000 to 40,000 fans a game like it did 20 years ago when Mike Price was here. And now football is relevant.
Can it be done? Absolutely. But you have to find the right coach that can win here. And, let’s be honest, they’ve had a hard time with that over the years. You look at all the names prior to Scotty Walden. You look at Dana Dimel. You look at Sean Kugler. You look at David Lee. You look at even Mike Price. First two, three years, terrific. Could never replicate that success the rest of the time. while he was here. And Mike Price is the best thing that’s happened to UTEP football since the ’60s.
But the point is it is so tough to win. This is not an easy place for anybody to come in and get it done. But New Mexico figured out a way. They found the right formula and it’s been able to work for them and it’s completely changed the way people are looking at that program.
Adrian: And look at how the donors have juiced that program up. I mean, I don’t think UTEP is ever going to get to a point where they’re going to be like UNLV. I don’t think they’re gonna ever get to a point where they’re gonna be like Grand Canyon, who’s going to be on the basketball side, dumping money all over the place for NIL resources in the Mountain West.
Like, I think there’s going to be these schools who are always going to separate themselves, even a school like Hawaii. They’ve got a lot of money over there and they’re bringing a lot of players to their football program, especially over there.
So, I think there’s going to be this one tier that’s higher than everybody else. Can UTEP be in the second tier in terms of spending? But then be as competitive enough to be still in the higher tier. So, if you look at a school like New Mexico and they’ve got a jolt in donors, they saw it. They had to see it to believe it. And they had to see it to donate and they had to see it to actually throw all the funds they wanted into that program. Even from a university standpoint, I think a little bit of winning has to happen at UTEP in order for that to happen.
Steve: Now, I’m going to disagree with Adrian on one thing. I think UTEP has as much potential as any school in this league if they win – if they win – because I think there’s a lot of money in this town. But they don’t want to spend it on something that’s not going to give them a return on their investment. So, if UTEP was to start winning and was to compete in the NCAA tournament in basketball and win bowl games in football, I absolutely think this community, this city, will spend the money they need to be at the top of the Mountain West.
The problem is it’s been so long since these programs have been at that level that we’ve forgotten about it. And that’s one of the reasons why they’re trying so hard to raise money. Because, let’s be honest, they’re raising money for a losing football program. It’s pretty amazing that they’ve raised this kind of money considering UTEP won two games last year and three the year before.
So, if they start to win six, seven, eight, nine, 10 on a regular basis, that would completely transform the way everybody in this town looks at this university and this program.
Diego: Yeah, it’s like success begets more success. But I’ll also say then you have instances like the Southern Utah game a year or two ago where I take my wife and my mom and, you know, “Hey, guys, let’s go and see UTEP. Oh, I think they’ll win this one.” And then they lose to a Southern Utah coach who was talking bad about El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
And then also, similarly, on the basketball side, UTEP basketball a couple of seasons ago was playing really well. New Mexico State comes home, they have a sellout. Again, take my wife and my mom – maybe I should stop doing that – and they get blown out by 30. And, so, it’s almost like as soon as UTEP’s on the precipice of kind of winning people over, they have these horrible losses against teams they should be beating.
But I guess I’m curious, though, when you guys talk about the schools at the top of the conference, like, who do you think is the most moneyed school in Mountain West now? And how far away do you think UTEP is?
Adrian: I think it’s UNLV. And I think if you looked at UNLV, if you’re saying basketball, it’s probably UNLV and Grand Canyon. I think UNLV, in terms of football or in terms of all their NIL, I was reading something – it’s really underreported stuff. So, you’re having to read between the lines. But I was seeing upwards of, like, $20 million between all their athletic programs for NIL and how they’re trying to invest in that program. But I use the word invest and, like, it’s a university effort. They’re getting some donors who are jumping in on this. They’re truly investing in that.
And then I’ll use UNLV in a continued example. Josh Pastner was quoted this offseason saying “you could buy us.” Like, “Own this basketball team. Don’t own the NBA team here in Las Vegas, own UNLV. Like, you can own us for $10 million.” There is a price tag on them which is kind of where this is headed.
And I think the league is poised for that. I think this could still be one of the best mid-major leagues for basketball. I think, from a football perspective, you’re going to talk about UNLV being at the top of that category right there for spending and New Mexico has to be in that category too for spending a lot of money.
Steve: I agree with Adrian. I think Nevada’s also got money in Reno. Josh Pastner, the head coach of UNLV, is the greatest salesman in college athletics. He really is. So, he’s the kind of guy that when he talks, you want to buy into what he’s saying because he just has that ability to sell his product and he has for years. So, it’s perfect for him.
But there are some schools, like Grand Canyon can’t stop printing money. There’s so much of it out there. We hear UC Davis coming in for basketball has a lot of money. I’m interested in North Dakota State. They’re the new kids on the block, but they’ve been so successful at FCS. I want to see the kind of money they’re going to start putting into their products now that they’re moving into the FBS.
So, yeah, there’s plenty of schools with money. But then there’s that second tier where UTEP can fit into right now and they can be with some of those schools that are like them, but haven’t necessarily taken that jump back up to the top like we’ve seen before.
Diego: Would you guys put UTEP maybe in the same class in the conference like Wyoming or Air Force? Or kind of classify where maybe UTEP’s around?
Steve: Not Air Force, because I don’t think Air Force raises money for NIL because it’s a military base. But yes, Wyoming, absolutely. San Jose State just got program-changing money they announced here recently. So, that’s kind of interesting, too. Remember, San Jose State is in Silicon Valley. So, you kind of understand where that could be from.
But, yes, I believe that some of those schools like you talked about, absolutely in that type of area where the Miners could be competing against. And they can raise the money. Now the key is are you smart with how you build your rosters? Really, you need a general manager, like how professional sports have GMs. You need somebody who can absolutely figure out the best way for roster construction to give you the best bang for your buck.
Adrian: The only thing I’ll add to that is that even though UTEP is in that – I would say, if there’s 10 teams in football, they’re probably right in the middle, OK? So, even if they’re in the middle, the upside is there for them to skyrocket all the way to the top. However, you have to make it sustainable. You can’t just go under .500, having a losing season year over year and still ask your donor base, still ask your supporters for money. That’s going to be the tough part, is like, five years from now, if they’re not winning, it’s going to be hard to go back to the well over and over again asking for donations.
Diego: Yeah, that’s one thing that has struck me. Like, if I was a wealthy guy in El Paso, a successful business person, would I want to kick in hundreds of thousands of dollars or whatever? So, then you bring in some player, maybe UTEP (is) .500, has a mediocre season, the guy leaves. What did you get for your investment? That’s one question I’ve had from the donor perspective, right? So, just kind of something that I think people have to get over mentally.
But I wonder, so, we’ve talked about the money. Like, how do you guys think UTEP compares competitively with other Mountain West teams? And not just in football or basketball, but across the board? Like, do you think UTEP’s going to just get crushed or do you think that they’ll have an ability to be competitive here?
Steve: Just depends on the sport, right? Volleyball was just predicted to win the league. We were joking last week, when is the last time a UTEP sport was ever predicted to finish first in their conference? It’s rare. It doesn’t happen very often. Volleyball will be fine. They’re going to be competitive. Again, just depends on what sports you’re looking at.
Football is going to have a tough time this year because of their schedule. There’s just no doubt about it. Basketball, I like men’s basketball and I like women’s basketball. I think that they’ve done a good job with their rosters, but I want to wait and see how the rest of the league looks before we can really gauge it.
Softball is going to struggle. Soccer is off to their best start in years, although they haven’t played anybody yet. So, like, let’s see the competition start to increase a little bit because, yes, they’re currently the only unbeaten team in the Mountain West. But they haven’t played the caliber of competition yet that’s going to make me believe. If they can finish .500 or better in their league, that would be a pretty successful season for Gibbs Keeton compared to what it had.
But again, you just go down the list of sports and it’s tough. Competitive? I could see them competing. Winning? That’s a completely different conversation.
Adrian: The other part to this is you want to see your teams play postseason, right? You want to see them. So, like, bowl games are starting to become irrelevant, Diego. Like games are not – they don’t have the same sizzle. And the Mountain West is tied into four (bowl games) plus one with ESPN broadcast that could throw them into an extra one. You always wonder could they get a bid for the College Football Playoff and could they be one of the only G4 or G6 teams to actually have a representative in the College Football Playoff? So, that’s one of them right there.
If (the College Football Playoff) expands to 24 teams, it’s just going to hurt it even more. If you go on the other side, to basketball, I think that’s where it really helps. Postseason basketball, it could be a multi-bid league, whereas Conference USA was always a one-bid league.
Diego: Meaning you had to win the conference tournament to make the NCAA tournament regardless of how your season went.
Adrian: And for the Mountain West, having two teams that could be playing postseason basketball at a high level and then having other teams who can get bids in the NIT, which it had five teams last year in the Mountain West going to the NIT. So, there’s postseason possibilities. And I think UTEP fans can get behind even an NIT run, a team that goes to the NIT, they can get behind that a lot more than they get behind exiting in the Conference USA tournament in Huntsville, Alabama, which nobody’s going to.
Steve: Yeah, now the tournament is in Vegas. So now fans can go gamble, have some fun and go watch basketball. Which is, I mean, listen, it’s probably the best spot for a conference tournament, Las Vegas, Nevada. So, that’s one of the beauties of now being in the Mountain West.
Diego: Yeah, that’s a great point. Yeah, even as a UTEP basketball fan, I never had any plans to travel to Alabama to watch them in the Conference USA tournament. But maybe I’ll get out to Vegas at some point.
All right, we’ll wrap up here, guys. Again, I appreciate your time. For listeners who maybe haven’t been plugged in on UTEP football offseason, tell us what to expect? What should El Pasoans expect when UTEP starts playing in the Sun Bowl? And is it going to be a high-flying offense, a defense-first team? What should we expect to see?
Adrian: Well, you’re going to see a defense-first team, that’s for sure. It’s kind of been that way year over year for Scotty Walden. We haven’t really seen what the offense will look like. So, seeing them against Oklahoma will be the first time watching their offense kind of full effect.
I expect their quarterback to be as good as advertised. I expect EJ Colson to live up to that. But can he be healthy? I mean, UTEP has had one healthy season with a quarterback in the last decade for the full season where the quarterback plays from start to finish, the full season. And that’s Gavin Hardison in 2021 when they went to a bowl game. And it’s 10 years since they’ve actually had a – the last time they’ve had another quarterback go with a full season healthy. And that just tells you you have to have health on your side. You have to have a little bit of luck on your side.
And for UTEP, with a really tough schedule, temper those expectations. I’d say four wins is a big accomplishment right here for this coaching staff. And that just tells you how tough the schedule is and how low the expectations really should be. I mean, when you’re talking about UTEP football.
Steve: If E.J. Colson can stay healthy at quarterback, they have a legit shot to win four to six games. They do. They absolutely do. But again, number one, can he make it out of the Oklahoma game healthy? That we don’t know yet, right? If he gets hurt, they have a chance to win maybe one game, two games. I mean, I don’t – there’s a drop off behind Colson. They spent a lot of money on him. And when you look at the rest of the depth chart, there’s so many questions.
And the other thing is this, too, about Colson, I like him. I like what he brings to the table. I like his skill set. However, Scotty Walden is still calling plays. What’s the one beef you’ve heard from fans these last two years is they need somebody else to call plays. How do we know after watching the first few games, even with EJ Colson, that the game plan is to his strengths to where they can actually put points on the board and win? We don’t. If they struggle offensively, even with Colson, fans are going to go nuts. They’re going to be screaming and yelling for Scotty to stop calling plays just like they have and everything’s going to go downhill.
So, the interesting thing about this season is this, Diego, their schedule’s awful, all right? You’ve got to play Oklahoma and Michigan in two of your first three games. That’s not doing them any favors whatsoever.
So, what are the realistic expectations? Maybe like the (New Mexico State) Aggies this past weekend against Florida State. Be competitive, don’t get blown out and please don’t get hurt. Because if you can come out of those games with a paycheck and a relatively close score, where you’re putting some points on the board and you look halfway decent – like they did against Texas last year with the Miners – you’ll give some faith to this fan base.
But if they get hurt and lose key players and they get obliterated, then all of a sudden another season is over before it gets started. And Scotty Walden truly is on the hot seat because it would be three years in a row since he’s been here where the team has completely underperformed. So, it’s going to be really interesting. We’ll probably know a lot after those first three, four games.
Diego: Yeah, I’ll listen to Scotty Walden come on your guys’ show or other places, and man, I get so excited. He just hypes me up. He sells me on it. And then I go look at the schedule. I see Oklahoma, Michigan, Oregon State, some of these schools. I’m going, “Man, this is going to be tough.”
I will say I think it’ll be a little more exciting for fans to have some bigger schools in the Sun Bowl. And again, like, I don’t know how jazzed up people were to watch Kennesaw State or Florida International or whatever. So, maybe some of the Mountain West schools coming into town will do good. Also, maybe some of those checks from the big schools will help fund the NIL goals. I guess we’ll see.
Adrian: They need that for sure.
Diego: Yeah. Well, anyways, hey, I appreciate you guys for giving us a breakdown on UTEP and this transition to the Mountain West Conference. And we’ll just be curious to see how the season goes and if we have the same kind of giving from the donors in the coming seasons that I think they’ll need.
Adrian: Thanks, Diego.
Steve: Thanks, Diego.
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