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So much for playing a (potential) 20-game football season this year for Louisiana Tech University!
Bulldogs fans can breathe a rather expensive $8 million sigh of relief after the school and Conference USA have apparently come to terms on a long-awaited exit agreement.
This will allow Louisiana Tech to officially begin play in the Sunbelt Conference beginning with this fall’s college football season.
The national news media enjoyed a not-that-funny field day making jokes about how Louisiana Tech might play a 20-game schedule this fall. Conference USA and the Sunbelt Conference each released their football schedules in March which featured the Bulldogs participating in games in both conferences this fall.
It started when Conference USA posted a 2026 fall football schedule on March 12 which included Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs have been a part of Conference USA since 2013.
However, the school gave notice to C-USA last summer that the Bulldogs intended to leave and join the geographically-closer group of schools in the Sunbelt Conference.
Not to be outdone, the Sunbelt Conference released its own 2026 fall football schedule – including Louisiana Tech – the following day on March 13.
A quick review of those two football schedules meant that the Bulldogs might have to play a 20-game football schedule this fall!
A very creative sportswriter in Shreveport recently came up with a plan where Louisiana Tech could possibly play all 20 games this fall by utilizing a split-squad on a couple of occasions. With 20 possible football games, the Bulldogs might be able to post the school’s first 10-win season and secure a top bowl invitation!
The deal is not official – yet
A few news outlets reported Tuesday that Louisiana Tech will open its wallet to pay Conference USA over $8 million to exit the league in order to join the Sunbelt Conference this fall.
If you would like some history as to how this began, check out my previous posts here and here. In recent weeks, Louisiana Tech and Conference USA have been at the negotiation table trying to settle this matter via arbitration.
Neither Louisiana Tech nor Conference USA have officially announced this settlement agreement or its terms. Many negotiated settlements include certain provisions which the two parties are required to keep confidential.
We may never know the actual amount or how long Louisiana Tech has to pay it.
Given the size of the reported settlement, the smiles seem more likely to be coming from Conference USA and its attorneys as many expected the final amount to be in the range of $4-5 million.
What is $8 million worth to Louisiana Tech? Plenty!
The Knight Foundation college athletics database showed Louisiana Tech’s total athletics spending in 2024 was $33 million. Football amounted to $9 million or 27% of the total.
By contrast, Louisiana’s football giant LSU showed athletics spending of $221 million in 2024.
Football expenditures were $60 million of the total.
To my surprise, football at LSU consumed the same 27% of the total athletics budget as Louisiana Tech’s.
Unlike Louisiana Tech, though, LSU’s expensive athletics program has been turning a profit for decades.
The Ruston-based Bulldogs have gone into the red in several recent years.
That’s why Louisiana Tech’s willingness to pay a $8 million price tag to exit Conference USA is a bit surprising.
Why did Louisiana Tech agree to pay up?
The school’s national reputation was on the line if a deal wasn’t consummated this spring.
Conference USA’s agreement with Louisiana Tech had specific requirements which the school had to meet in order to exit the contract before its scheduled termination. One stipulation involved Louisiana Tech giving a minimum notice (rumored to be 14 months) prior to exiting C-USA. Another required Louisiana Tech to forfeit two years of its share of C-USA media revenues (estimated to be at least $2 million or more per year).
For its part, Louisiana Tech watched as former Conference USA members Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss locked hands and broke away together to join the Sunbelt Conference in 2022.
Not only did the exiting trio appear to give less prior notice than Louisiana Tech provided, the word leaked that each party had paid Conference USA about $3 million apiece in order to walk away.
It’s quite possible that the leadership at Louisiana Tech expected similar treatment.
One thing which most media sources have failed to consider is Conference USA’s current television/media deal with ESPN and CBS Sports Network.
The new arrangement began in 2023 – one year after Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss had already walked away.
The current media contract may have included a provision to reduce the annual media revenues to C-USA should any of the league’s then-current members (such as Louisiana Tech) leave the conference prior to the end of the latest media contract.
Perhaps Conference USA demanded Louisiana Tech to compensate the remaining group of primary Conference USA members for several years of lost media revenues.
Even at $8 million, should this be considered a good deal for Louisiana Tech?
In the short term, it appears that the proverbial cart got before the horse.
The $8 million price tag was a very steep price to pay for a school leaving a declining mid-major athletics conference to join a rising mid-major conference like the Sunbelt.
Anyone looking to point fingers should start with Louisiana Tech’s decision makers. Many openly expressed their desire to join the Sunbelt Conference months ahead of the official announcement last July. Nearly everyone wanted to see the Bulldogs renew their old rivalries, save significantly on travel expenses, and retain top athlete-students.
This fall’s move to the Sunbelt Conference will be a very positive moment for Louisiana Tech athletics. The $8 million price tag must be amortized over a period of more than just a few years in order to feel better about the short-term financial pain.
I have been a long-time critic of Conference USA’s rinky-dink October mid-week college football games.
Bulldogs fans cringed as their Saturday home games were moved to Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday nights during October purely for television.
This was done to quench the media’s insatiable desire to show competitive football on television (and reap the advertising benefits) seven nights per week during fall’s pre-Christmas advertising blitz.
Sports fans of the ULM Warhawks and Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns will be thrilled to have Louisiana Tech join their athletics conference. Those two Sunbelt schools will see higher attendance and lower travel costs for all sporting events involving Louisiana Tech beginning this fall.
The unfortunate downside of this expensive buyout is whether Louisiana Tech failed to fully understand its existing contract agreement with Conference USA.
Someone at the school had to have established a value representing the worst-case scenario of the potential exit costs prior to making a deal to join the Sunbelt Conference. A good attorney should have flagged the potential worst-case possibilities as well.
It appeared that the school expected to make a reasonable exit deal ($3 million) similar to what Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss accomplished in 2022.
Last July’s announcement decision by Louisiana Tech to join the Sunbelt Conference “no later than 2027” almost immediately started the clock running on legal fees.
Conference USA sued Louisiana Tech in state court months later in November. Tech countered with their own suit against C-USA in early 2026. Recent weeks of arbitration and settlement discussions have been ringing up even more legal bills.
In the end, Conference USA “won” its $8 million, but that’s about it
Nothing against other long-time Conference USA members such as Western Kentucky, Florida International, and Middle Tennessee State, but Louisiana Tech carried the most recognizable national sports footprint in C-USA in recent years.
Conference USA will no longer be able to claim the school whose athletics history includes Hall-of-Famers such as football’s Terry Bradshaw and Willie Roaf.
The same goes for basketball Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and women’s point guard-turned-four-time national championship coach Kim Mulkey.
Conference USA’s far-flung geography was a big factor in Louisiana Tech’s decision to move to the Sunbelt. Liberty University in Virginia and the University of Delaware are both more than 1,000 miles northeast of Ruston, Louisiana. To the west, New Mexico State in Las Cruces is 936 miles away.
By contrast, Louisiana Tech will become a member of the Sunbelt Conference Western Division.
That means playing intrastate rivals UL-Monroe (35 miles east of Ruston) and UL-Lafayette (185 miles to the south). Other Sunbelt West partners include Southern Miss in Hattiesburg (240 miles), Arkansas State in Jonesboro (300 miles), South Alabama in Mobile (340 miles) and Troy (440 miles away in southern Alabama).
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs sports teams spent $5 million during 2024 on game expenses and travel as a member of Conference USA. The school could save $1 million or more annually on reduced travel expenses as a member of the Sunbelt Conference Western Division.
Louisiana Tech sports fans will now get to enjoy a Saturday, October 10 home college football visit from in-state rival UL-Lafayette.
The following week will have the Bulldogs taking a short trip down I-20 to Monroe. This much-anticipated football game against the ULM Warhawks will fill Monroe’s Malone Stadium on Saturday, October 17.
Had the Bulldogs remained in Conference USA, their October football schedule would have included a Thursday night game followed by three consecutive Wednesday night contests. The league’s annual “made-for-midweek-TV” October schedule would make any serious football program want to leave C-USA at the first opportunity.
In all fairness, the move to the Sunbelt wasn’t likely worth $8 million, either.
At least this year’s new Sunbelt football schedule (especially during the month of October) will be a nice down payment to build years of renewed fan interest in Louisiana Tech athletics.
Go, Dogs, Go!