UTEP Announces Don Haskins Center Reseating Plans for Basketball
UTEP announced today that 2,500 to 3,000 fans will be allowed at the Don Haskins Center for the 2020-21 men's and women's basketball season which begins on November 25th. The reseating will get under way on Monday, October 19th and conclude on October 30th. The revised seating capacity will be announced at a later date. The Athletic Department also announced that no general admission seating will be available for basketball.
UTEP also announced that five-game mini-plans and single game tickets could go on sale next month depending on the number of tickets remaining in the arena after the reseating process. The Miners revamped their ticket website to handle every request that fans would have for the athletic season.
CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein tweeted earlier today that C-USA is considering a special scheduling model for their regular season games.
C-USA will play an 18 game league schedule and the NCAA has capped the maximum number of games a school can play at 25 (or 27 if they play in a multi-team tournament). If they pass the proposed Thursday - Saturday schedule, it means that each program will play an unbalanced league schedule. Some will play five home series and four road series while others could get four home and five road matchups. The unbalanced schedule will not be a favorite for the coaches and fans of some teams while others will benefit. It also means that each team will play 9 of 13 possible opponents this regular season.
With just seven to nine non-conference games available, most universities have to be extremely picky about their schedule. New Mexico and New Mexico State are still working out their details for game dates with the strict guidelines placed by governor Michelle Lujon Grisham. Since those dates and times are still in flux, UTEP is having to play the waiting game with both NMSU and UNM, and they cannot finalize their 2020-21 schedule yet. That is also the reason why the Miners have not yet released their basketball schedule.