The Mountain West Conference added UTEP as its seventh full-time member on Tuesday.

The move to add a seventh full-time member — Hawaii is a football member only, with most of its other sports in the Big West — meets the NCAA’s minimum required to be an auto-bid conference for sports such as basketball. The move also meets the required eight that’s needed to meet the CFP’s requirement for access to the five bids that go to conference champions.

The MW is rebuilding following the recent departures of five schools to the Pac-12: Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Utah State.

“We are excited to welcome The University of Texas at El Paso to the Mountain West as the next step in our strategic membership initiatives,” Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement. “The addition of UTEP restores historic rivalries with several of our member institutions within the geographic footprint and provides valuable exposure in the great State of Texas. We welcome and look forward to competing against the student-athletes of UTEP.”

UTEP, a member of Conference USA, will owe about $8 million to the league to exit, according to a person briefed on the situation. CUSA has a grant of rights as part of its current television contract.

The Miners have long considered the Mountain West an ideal geographical fit, since UTEP sits in the westernmost part of Texas. The Miners were members of the Western Athletic Conference from 1968 to 2004 before moving into CUSA in 2005.

“There’s no doubt this will be better for our student-athletes, our fans, and for El Paso,” UTEP president Heather Wilson said. “We look forward to rekindling former rivalries and welcoming teams and their fans to El Paso.”

As the MWC looks to add an eighth member, discussions with Texas State — currently in the Sun Belt — are ongoing, according to a person briefed on the discussions. But a resolution may not be imminent, as Texas State is mulling potential options among the Mountain West, Pac-12 and even the American Athletic Conference, where three other Texas schools reside.

The Mountain West has also had discussions with Tarleton State, which is part of the United Athletic Conference in the FCS. Tarleton State, located in Stephenville, Texas, has aggressively pushing itself as an FBS option in realignment in recent years as the program has invested heavily in athletics and infrastructure.