Conference USA - UTEP's new home effective July 1 - announced its football national television schedule on Tuesday, which includes a minimum of five Miner games.

Two UTEP contests will be carried on either ESPN or ESPN2, with three more to be televised on CSTV.

The Miners' league opener on Sept. 16 versus Houston in the Sun Bowl will be an ESPN2 telecast. UTEP's game at Tulane on Oct. 14 will be televised on either ESPN or ESPN2.

In addition, CSTV will carry UTEP's non-conference game versus New Mexico (Sept. 24), as well as C-USA tilts at Memphis (Oct. 1) and against Marshall (Oct. 22).

UTEP and Southern Miss are tied for the lead among C-USA schools with five national television appearances each.

The C-USA schedule features a minimum of 31 games to be nationally-televised on ESPN, ESPN 2 or CSTV. The inaugural Conference USA championship will also be televised by ESPN on Saturday, December 3.

This season also marks the first year of C-USA's partnership with CSTV: College Sports Television. CSTV and Conference USA recently signed a six-year initial term that includes significant national and regional exposure for football, men's and women's basketball and other C-USA sports. CSTV, the fastest growing independent cable network, has agreements with distributors that serve more than 65 million households nationwide. It deals with the top six distributors - Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and Adelphia, among others - and is expected to be available on cable in all Conference USA markets when the partnership commences this August.

Additional Conference USA football television exposures remain a possibility, and will be released as soon as they are finalized.

2005 CONFERENCE USA FOOTBALL TELEVISION SCHEDULE
(confirmed games as of May 17)

ESPN SCHEDULE
Thurs., Sept. 1UCF at South Carolina
Mon., Sept. 5Mississippi at Memphis
Fri., Oct. 21Southern Miss at UAB
Sat., Dec. 3C-USA Championship Game
Tues., Dec. 20Wyndham New Orleans Bowl
Wed., Dec. 21GMAC Bowl
Fri., Dec. 23PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl
Sat., Dec. 24Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Sat., Dec. 31AutoZone Liberty Bowl

ESPN 2 SCHEDULE
Thurs., Sept. 1Oregon at Houston
Thurs., Sept. 1Minnesota at Tulsa
Sun., Sept. 4Tulane at Southern Miss
Sat., Sept. 10Kansas State at Marshall
Fri., Sept. 16Houston at UTEP 6 p.m. Mountain
Tues., Nov. 1UAB at Memphis
Tues., Nov. 8Southern Miss at Marshall

ESPN OR ESPN 2 SCHEDULE
Sat., Sept. 10Southern Miss at Alabama
Fri., Oct. 14UTEP at Tulane6 p.m. Mountain

CSTV NATIONAL
Sat., Sept. 3Duke at East Carolina
Sat., Sept. 10TCU at SMU
Sat., Sept. 17Mississippi State at Tulane
Sat., Sept. 24New Mexico at UTEP7 p.m. Mountain
Sat., Oct. 1UTEP at Memphis6 p.m. Mountain
Sat., Oct. 8Tulsa at Southern Miss
Sat., Oct. 15UAB at Marshall
Sat., Oct. 22Marshall at UTEP 7 p.m. Mountain