It was probably the most intriguing-looking game on what is admittedly not a particularly intriguing 2008 non-conference schedule for the University of Alabama football team.

The UTEP Miners aren’t one of the marquee teams in the country, but under Mike Price, they are an exciting offensive team capable of pulling an upset. The Miners are now probably comparable with Hawaii, who fought Alabama to the wire in the 2006 opener. The sub-plot of an Alabama-UTEP would be compelling as well. Price – fired at Alabama before he could ever coach a game for the Crimson Tide – would finally be on the sidelines in a stadium where he once said he “always dreamed of coaching.”

Well, the dream isn’t going to come true.

UTEP athletics director Bob Stull said in a telephone interview on Friday that the two schools had come to a mutual agreement and that the game will not be played on Oct. 11, 2008, after all.

“We’re not going to play,” Stull said.

“We both have games that we are more interested in playing, so we mutually agreed to go in (another) direction.”

Stull has done a good job of scheduling for UTEP. Its 2008 schedule already has the Texas Longhorns coming to play in El Paso, a rare scheduling coup, Attendance has risen as Price’s teams have had success, making a big payday (which a road game at Alabama would represent) less of a necessity. Membership in the geographically vast Conference USA means that UTEP will be making a couple of trips to the Deep South annually (this year, Tulane and Central Florida) and another one probably isn’t all that appealing.

Of course, while Stull never mentioned it, there is also the potential discomfort as the Price situation was hashed and rehashed.

That was probably in Mal Moore’s mind as well, though he made no overt reference to Price on Friday. The UA athletics director did confirm that the UTEP game was off.

“It’s something we mutually agreed on,” Moore said.

While UA did release a 2008 schedule (including UTEP) through its Tide Pride office a few months ago, Moore said that was premature and that the official schedule would be released through the school’s Sports Information Office when it was completed.

Moore said that Alabama was “talking to a couple of schools” about the UTEP vacancy, and that the talks were “close” to sealing a deal.

That doesn’t automatically mean that a game will just be plugged into the Oct. 11 slot vacated by the Miners. With the 2008 season opening on August 30, Alabama already had two other open dates – one on September 13 and the other on November 22, between the LSU and Auburn games. Moore said that it was “possible that some shuffling of dates” could take place in the non-conference schedule.

Alabama fans will immediately dream of marquee matchups. Nick Saban’s comments a few weeks ago about wanting to play big-time teams like Notre Dame caused a lot of excitement, but it’s not likely that the logistics for such a game could be worked out on short notice. Involvement by a TV network like ESPN might open some doors, but the “new” game probably will resemble the rest of the 2008 non-conference slate of Western Kentucky, Tulane and Northern Illinois.

What will happen beyond the 2008 season is more intriguing. Alabama has a couple of big non-conference series coming up with Penn State and Georgia Tech. Now seems like the time for UA to be adding a little more future glamour.

Notre Dame’s announcement last week that it would be playing two neutral-site games in Orlando (2011 and 2014) was interesting. The Alabama-Florida State neutral site game this year will be a test case for fan response (which, to this point, has been overwhelmingly positive.) Atlanta and New Orleans would also be excellent venues for non-conference neutral site games.

That wouldn’t be a complete solution. Even accepting the argument that the annual SEC gauntlet is tough enough on a team, now seems like the time to do more. Saban’s arrival (and his recent comments) have generated a buzz. So will the next expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium, which is sure to happen before long and might be more extensive than some people anticipate. Demand is high. An occasional big-name non-conference opponent will help keep things that way.

For the moment, though, UA is simply looking to turn off the “Vacancy” sign for 2008.

(Cecil Hurt is sports editor of the Tuscaloosa News. Reach him at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.)