Yes, this post may overlap a similar thread about Stull vs Senter, but I digress.
I saw a question posed somewhere, someone asked about another school - Do we have a team or a program?
Yes, the obvious answer is "a program", but think deeper and UTEP really has a football team, a basketball team. We cant rely on a championship from 57 years ago or a Sweet Sixteen from 31 years ago. Does it help telling a recruit, "Hey about 15 years before you were born, we beat Kansas"
In Senter's tenure we have a collection of teams, that play each season, try to win as many games as possible (usually unsuccessfully), and then look to the following season - and the cycle renews. They are individual teams that come and go.
Look at Twitter, people think the football team might go 7-5 or perhaps 5-7 next season - wow "we may go just above .500", show me a tweet where anyone thinks UTEP will compete for the championship. Do you think Men's Basketball will be predicted to go anywhere higher than perhaps 3rd next season (coaches pre-season or any publication or platform) - and in a watered down league.
We don't have programs that consistently build upon itself, that are devoted to winning championships (yes I know that's the goal at UTEP), and bringing positive national attention to the athletics department.
Senter was hired 11/22/2017, so since the 2018-19 season the 4 most visible sports/window to the university are as follows:
Football 17-40 (29.8%) - No Conference Championships, 1 Bowl Appearance (New Mexico)
Men's Basketball 71-80 (47%) - No Conference Championships, No NCAA Appearances, No NIT, 1 Basketball Classic
Women's BB 76-71 (51.7%) - No Conference Championships, 1 WNIT Appearance
Indoor Volleyball 69-64 (51.9%) - No Conference Championships, 1 National Invitational Appearance
So basically, women's sports are just above .500, Football is horrendous, men's basketball is semi-horrendous.
NO CHAMPIONSHIPS, NO PROGRAMS
Went from playing UNT, So Miss, Marshall, to Kennesaw State - yeah thats going to be huge draws, 3-4 UTEP vs 2-5 Kennesaw State on a Wednesday night in October. We will schedule more mercy games at OU, Texas, Tennessee and get decimated and be on ESPN with a score of 51-6 - that will most certainly help recruiting while App State goes out and beats A&M. Again, App State has a nice program.