The mayors of El Paso and Las Cruces have made a friendly wager on the outcome of Saturday’s college football rivalry game between the University of Texas, El Paso Miners and the New Mexico State University Aggies.
The game between UTEP and NMSU will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Aggie Memorial Stadium. Tickets for the game are on sale at the NMSU Ticket Office, at the Pan American Center.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima have agreed that the losing mayor of the Miner-Aggie game will have to wear a face mask of the winning team’s school at the next City Council meeting. Mayor Miyagishima appears to be confident.
“The loser will have to wear an Aggie face mask at the next Council meeting,” Miyagishima joked. “In the unlikely event the Miners win, I will have to wear a Miner face mask.”
Recent outcomes of the “Battle of I-10” tend to favor Mayor Miyagishima. The Miners and Aggies did not play each other last year; COVID-19 forced the cancellation of that game. But the Aggies have beaten the Miners the last three times the teams have played. In 2019, NMSU prevailed against the Miners, 44-35. The game in 2018 saw the Aggies edge UTEP 27-20, and in 2016 NMSU was a 41-14 winner.
But overall, the series between the Aggies and Miners has definitely favored UTEP. Since the two teams began playing each other in 1914, UTEP has a 57-37-2 all-time record against NMSU.
The game will also be televised live on KVIA-TV, channel 7.
Mayor Miyagishima’s last bet was in 2018 with former El Paso Mayor Dee Margo (pictured right). Margo lost and was supposed to wear an Aggie jersey.