UTEP Football to play at North Dakota State, Mountain West Conference announces

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (KVIA)- The Mountain West Conference has announced Tuesday that UTEP will play at North Dakota State University in the 2026 football season.

NDSU, after playing in the FCS since 2004, will play its first FBS game in 2026. UTEP’s contest against the Bison will replace the game scheduled at UNLV, and will mark the first ever meeting between the two programs. 

The Mountain West announced on Feb. 9 that the North Dakota State football program will join the league. The Bison will be the conference’s 10^th football school. 

The teams from Hawai’i, Nevada, San Jose State and Wyoming are scheduled to come to the Sun Bowl, while the UTEP Miners will have to travel to face Air Force, New Mexico, NIU and North Dakota State. 

In nonconference action, UTEP will host Oregon State and Texas Southern, while playing at Power Four programs Michigan and Oklahoma.

UTEP officially joins the Mountain West on July 1, 2026, following a 21-year run in Conference USA.