Battle of I-10
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| Sport | Football |
|---|---|
| First meeting | October 31, 1914 New Mexico State 19, UTEP 0 |
| Latest meeting | September 10, 2016 UTEP 38, New Mexico State 22 |
| Next meeting | September 23, 2017 |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 93 |
| All-time series | UTEP leads 57-36-2 |
| Current win streak | UTEP, 8 (2009–present) |
The Battle of I-10 is a college rivalry between The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and New Mexico State University (NMSU). It is called the Battle of I-10 because the two universities are located along Interstate 10 connecting El Paso and Las Cruces.
The 101-year-old series between the UTEP Miners and the NMSU Aggies has had many exciting finishes in its storied history. Although UTEP holds the series lead at 56–35–2, largely due to dominance in the series from the 1920s to the 1960s, UTEP's advantage is 7-0 since 2009.
The winner of the annual matchup receives a pair of traveling trophies. The older of the two is known as the Silver Spade. It is a replica of an old prospector's shovel found in an abandoned mine in the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces and has been traded between the schools since 1955. A second trophy, officially titled the Mayor's Cup but commonly nicknamed the Brass Spittoon, was added in 1982.
Due to the close proximity of the campuses it was natural for a rivalry to develop. The Texas College of Mines played its first ever game against a collegiate opponent versus New Mexico A&M in 1914 and, with few exceptions, including during World War I and World War II, the teams would meet again every year. Following World War II the series resumed on an annual basis from 1946 until 2001, when UTEP's administration made the controversial decision to cancel their scheduled trip to Las Cruces in favor of scheduling an additional home contest against a Division I-AA opponent. The schools agreed to meet again in 2002 (a 49–14 NMSU win, their biggest blowout of the Miners since 1922), but did not play again until 2004 in El Paso when the Miners exacted revenge for their blowout loss two years prior with a 45–0 pasting of the Aggies, the most lopsided result in the series in 55 years. The blowout marked the beginning of a three game winning streak for UTEP in the rivalry. The tide of the series then seemingly turned back in the Aggies' favor, as NMSU defeated UTEP the next two years, their first back-to-back wins over UTEP since 1994 and 1995. The Aggies edged the Miners 34–33 on September 20, 2008 at the Sun Bowl for their first win in El Paso since 1994. However, the most recent three games in the series have gone back to the Miners, with UTEP defeating NMSU at Aggie Memorial Stadium 38–12 on September 19, 2009 (only their second win in the Mesilla Valley since 1991), topping the Aggies 42–10 at the Sun Bowl on September 18, 2010, and again defeating the Aggies 16–10 on September 17, 2011 in Las Cruces for their first back-to-back road wins in the series since winning four straight games in Las Cruces between 1986 and 1991.
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