By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Picture the enduring class wallflower suddenly being the object of a whirlwind romance and you begin to imagine the situation the University of Texas-El Paso finds itself in today.

Dumped by the eight schools that bolted the Western Athletic Conference to form the Mountain West, then elbowed into the background as Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai'i and Nevada primped for and flirted with the MWC, guess who could get whisked away as soon as tomorrow?

The presidents of Conference USA meet tomorrow and if they agree to add a 12th member, UTEP is the odds-on favorite to say "yes!" to a proposal.

For the University of Hawai'i and the rest of the WAC, that once unimagined prospect is now as surprising as it is frightening. That it is a romance that few saw coming seems to be part of the hey-look-at-me-now attraction for UTEP.

Never mind that, with nearly 37 years of membership and 21 national team championships (albeit mostly in the 1970s and in track and cross country), UTEP is both the senior and most decorated member of the current WAC. Forget that UTEP has helped set the standard in basketball.

What the Miners long for is stability in a conference, the kind they enjoyed in the first three decades of WAC membership, and visibility, the kind that had eluded them in their vast home state.

WAC membership still has a lot to offer UTEP and, in several areas, surpasses what C-USA offers at a steeper price.

Indeed, the WAC would exert a stronger pull to stay if only the Miners knew what the conference might look like in another five to 10 years. If they could be assured that some of the anchors they have built relationships with would still be there, the Miners might be less inclined to stray. But with some still making eyes at the MWC, the Miners are nervous about not having a partner when the music starts on the next round of realignment.

Wedged into the extreme west corner of their state, seemingly more a part of New Mexico than Texas, the fact that UTEP is a time zone apart from most of the Lone Star State underlines the school's isolation. Some 130 miles closer to Phoenix than its own state capital; nearer to San Diego than Houston, the Miners have longed for a Texas identity.

They began to get a taste of one when the WAC took on Rice and Southern Methodist and plainly liked that not only did the UT Board of Regents in Austin more easily recognize their existence, but alumni in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth are more interested in keeping school ties.

Now that Rice and SMU are scheduled to join Houston in C-USA in 2005-'06, UTEP has suddenly turned into the date everybody wants to take home.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.