JOURNAL SPORTS
ESPN national college football correspondent Pete Thamel has already reported this morning that the Sun Belt Conference has extended Louisiana Tech an invitation following a vote this morning of the current 13 league schools.
Neither Louisiana Tech nor Sun Belt Conference officials have confirmed this report yet.
The opening in the Sun Belt was created when Texas State announced it would be departing the league to join the Pac-12.
There have been constant undertones of the possibility for almost a year, but the drumbeat increased in mid-June when national college athletic media members started citing sources that the moves could occur sooner than later.
Texas State officially accepted its invitation to the Pac-12 on July 5, thus creating the possibility of the next domino falling.
Tech needed a super majority to earn the invite, meaning if the report is accurate, at least 10 of the 13 schools voted for the Ruston-based program.
Tech would join App State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison, Louisiana-Lafayette, ULM, Marshall, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Southern Miss, and Troy to form the 14-team league.
The invitation would come 24 years after Tech left the Sun Belt to join the Western Athletic Conference on July 1, 2001, following a 10-year membership (1991-2001). Tech was a member of the WAC for 12 years before joining Conference USA on July 1, 2013, where it has resided ever since.
Based off normal timelines for a conference transition due to bylaws, if Tech accepts the offer it would be scheduled to begin membership in the Sun Belt on July 1, 2027.
However, recent history shows Universities departing their current leagues prematurely. Old Dominion, Southern Miss, and Marshall all announced their plan to leave CUSA in October of 2021 and less than 12 months later joined the Sun Belt on July 1, 2022.
There would be a price to pay for the transition to the Sun Belt per CUSA bylaws which require a departing school to pay two years’ worth of revenue distributions plus the remaining years on the grant of rights signed by all league schools in 2023. The grant of rights runs through 2028.
It’s reported that cost is roughly $5 million.
