NMSU’s Tony Sanchez not thrilled with forthcoming Battle of I-10 pause in 2026

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The college rivalry game between New Mexico State and UTEP will be put on pause in 2026 due to UTEP's shift from Conference USA to the Mountain West Conference which will take effect in 2026.

The Battle of I-10 rivalry game has been going for over 100 years and NMSU's head coach Tony Sanchez isn't happy with the pause of this major rivalry game.

"The problem is UTEP went to a different Conference," Sanchez said. "So, what you do is you schedule years in advance. We're going to play a power five, everyone is going to play their money game, you're going to play you're one double-A school every single year and then we're going to play New Mexico, so that as our game it was UTEP. However, we've got that extra G5 game scheduled so far out so if they want to pick up the tab and pay for that game, we would love to put them on the schedule. I would like to play them as many times as we can."

In the 2024 season, the Miners defeated the Aggies at Aggie Memorial Stadium with a final score, 42-35.

This season, the Aggies will pay a visit to Sun Bowl Stadium for a chance for redemption Saturday, November 22 at 1p.m.