Apparently UTEP thinks they won

[MustangStealth]

A school can put banners up saying whatever they want. At the trophy presentation, we got the one that said champions.

[EP Pony Fan]

A+

Then again, we could have had theirs, too, since they didn't bother to show up.

Even the Marshall player came out of the stands to claim her All-Tournament Team award, but there wasn't anyone in sight from UTEP. What an embarrassment to the conference, and frankly, to their coaches, who deserve far more respect than they get from their players.

[SMU Spartan]

Sadly what UTEP has done isn't unique. I mean you don't want to show your potential season ticket audience that your women's bb team chocked in the final playoff game. That is not only bad press but also bad business.

[Big Hoss]

In all conferences, they have a regular season champion, and a tournament champion, and each school can claim "a championship". We won the game against them, so that's all that matters.

Conference tournaments used to mean a whole lot more when the only team from a conference to go to the NCAA tourney was the team that won the conference tournament. This was up until the mid-70's I believe. Any other good teams from the conference that didn't win their conference tourney would usually head to the NIT. That's why the number of NCAA tournament appearances for coaches back in that time period is a lot less than coaches in the last 25-30 years.

Granted, the above is my understanding from men's basketball, but I think the same can be said for women's basketball.