Back in 2024, Scotty Walden had promised, “The UTEP Miners are going to show up. Anyone, anywhere, anytime, that’s our mindset. That is our calling card.” Now, after a disappointing 2-10 season, Walden isn’t waiting for excuses or even a helping hand to bring a change. He is ready to even take a personal financial hit to change the fate of his program.

Walden is committing 10 percent of his head coaching salary to the program’s revenue share. Last year, he made $800,000 as the Miners’ head coach, so this means he is to donate $80,000 to the program. But the bigger question is, how are they doing it? Last year, during April, Walden and his wife launched a campaign called the Walden Family Challenge. There, they committed to match every single penny donated to the program upto $70,000.

Within three weeks, the couple has successfully generated over $73,000 through the campaign. And guess what? All of this is rooted in Walden’s hunger to get his program back up on its feet. And he was clearly guilty of the team’s performance being so bad during his second season at the helm. And let’s face it, Walden is not in it for the money.

“The outside world sees these games, and they think we are just doing it to collect a check,” Walden said. “We are the coaches, the players behind the scenes working and grinding. This program, the stance we want to make is to build a program that can go and compete with teams at this level one day. That’s what we are doing, and our seniors have laid the foundation. This program is not going to be a program that lies down in quote-unquote money games. That’s not who we are.”

To be honest, it’s a huge thing that Scotty Walden actually made a move like this. While rare, this kind of move was pulled off by Mike Norvell, too. In 2024, FSU completed with the same 2-10 record. Norvell, being the head coach, contributed $4.5 million of his salary to the University’s athletic department through a one-year contract restructure. In 2025, when his contract was restructured, Norvell’s guaranteed salary of $10 million was reduced to $5.435 million.

“I presented this to our administration in an effort to boost the support of our student-athletes while recognizing that the results and expectations need to be upheld to the highest level,” Norvell said in a statement.

The FSU athletic director, Michael Alford, also opened up about it, saying that Norvell “took an honest assessment of what the program needed from its leader to move forward.”

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All of this adds up. You have one failed season, and suddenly the redemption arc begins. And it’s not even just Norvell and Walden. Former Oklahoma coach Mike Gundy also had his $7.75 million annual salary reduced to be redistributed as part of the revenue-sharing process. So it’s all based on your willingness to do something for your school.

“We want to win, we want to win so badly, that’s the thing that drives us,” Walden said back in 2024. “We want to win, our coaches want to win, we’re doing everything we can to win.

Other than the guilt trip playing its part, Walden’s generous contribution will play a very crucial role. UTEP is standing at a historic crossroads. On July 1, 2026, UTEP officially joins the Mountain West. The school announced the move in October 2024, and well, conference change doesn’t come free. UTEP requires significant funding to orchestrate this transition. In order to just exit from the Conference USA, the Miners are paying an approximate exit fee of $2 million.

While the Walden couple is doing their part in contributing financially, other major donations have also helped. This includes $2.5 million in help from the Woody and Gayle Hunt family foundation and another $2.5 million from the Paul L. Foster Family Foundation. Along with that, the University itself has raised money through its own foundation, which is the “Climb Higher” campaign.

It has raised nearly $8 million toward a $10 million goal. So there is no doubt that the numbers are looking really good as of now. However, along with a conference change, the University needs to be more financially strong after the 2025 NCAA vs House Settlement. Under this model, the school must share $20.5 million under the NCAA’s revenue-sharing cap. Last year, the situation was quite dire.

UTEP’s total athletic budget was about $27-$28 million. That is very low compared to what the rival programs spent on their recruiting and renovation. Texas Longhorns, being an in-state school and a part of the SEC, generated $353 million in total athletic revenue in FY 2025.