"Now we can move forward." Those were the words uttered by former Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky after UTEP became the 12th and final member to join C-USA during the vast realignment of 2005.
While the hiring of football coach Mike Price did help UTEP look more attractive over other candidates, there is no doubt the proud basketball tradition was the main selling point.
After 36 years as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, UTEP packed their luggage and left with 664 victories, eight regular season conference titles, and five conference tournament championships. When UTEP wasn't winning conference titles they were competing for them as they finished in the top four in the conference standings in 23 different seasons.