In the 109–year-old series between the
New Mexico State Aggies and the
UTEP Miners, UTEP holds the series lead at 60–40–2, largely due to dominance in the series from the 1920s to the 1960s. The winner of the annual matchup receives a pair of traveling trophies. The older of the two is known as the Silver Spade and dates to 1955. The trophy is a replica of a prospector's shovel from an abandoned mine in the
Organ Mountains. The Mayor's Cup was added in 1982 and is nicknamed the Brass Spittoon. 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 New Mexico State 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 New Mexico State 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. In August 2020, New Mexico State postponed football and fall sports due to
COVID-19. However, UTEP and
Conference USA proceeded with fall football. As a result, in 2020, the Battle of I-10 had no football game for the first time since 2003. On November 5, 2021, New Mexico State announced it would be joining UTEP in
Conference USA in all sports including football starting in 2023. The 2023 game thus marked the first time in over 60 years that the Battle of I-10 was played as a conference game; before this, the last time this happened was in 1961, with both schools as members of the now defunct
Border Conference. On October 1, 2024, UTEP announced it would be joining the
Mountain West Conference in all sports starting in 2026. Following the final CUSA conference football game between the two schools in 2025, the future of the rivalry game frequency remains unknown, although they will likely play again due to both programs remaining in the
Football Bowl Subdivision.
Notable statistics • From 1920 to 1951, UTEP hosted 22 of 28 games. • Before 1927, New Mexico State dominated the first 10 games with a record of 8–1–1. • From 1927 to 1967, UTEP dominated the series with a record of 29–7–1. • New Mexico State's back-to-back victories in 1960–1961 were its first since 1937–1938. • As of 2025, UTEP has won on the road 21 times, while New Mexico State has won on the road 19 times. • There have been 2 ties in the series, once in El Paso in 1925 and once in Las Cruces in 1952. • The September 26, 1998, game at
Aggie Memorial Stadium set the all-time attendance record for any football game at the stadium with 32,993 in attendance. • The September 25, 1999, game at
Sun Bowl set a new attendance record for that stadium with 52,247 which surpasses all
Sun Bowl games and NFL Exhibition games ever played there. However, since then 2 regular season UTEP games have surpassed that attendance. • The two most record breaking lopsided victories in the rivalry: • November 11, 1922 – New Mexico State 64, UTEP 0 • November 25, 1948 – UTEP 92, New Mexico State 7
Game results Note: UTEP was known as the Texas School of Mines and Metallurgy prior to 1949 and Texas Western College from 1949–1967 and New Mexico State was known as New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts prior to 1960. Both schools are listed under their modern abbreviations for all games. • Non-conference games (75: 1914–1933 and 1962–2022) • Not played in 10 seasons (1917–1919, 1934, 1943–1945, 2001, 2003 and 2020) ==Coaching records==