by Malcolm Butler
Punch. Counter punch.
Louisiana Tech fans (and all of the college football world) were entertained late last week when the Bulldogs 2026 gridiron schedule was released.
Twice.
While the Conference USA basketball championships were in the middle of the final game of the quarterfinals on Thursday night, league officials released the football slate.
After sending out a notification to its current member schools around 8:35 p.m. alerting them to the impending announcement, just minutes later CUSA released the slate — which included LA Tech — via social media avenues. Tech officials did not recognize the announcement with one of its own.
Less than 18 hours later, the Sun Belt Conference office released its 2026 football slate Friday with the Bulldogs as part of it. Tech officials immediately joined in with social media posts and an email announcement of the Dogs slate in Sun Belt Conference play.
It was the latest move in a game of conference affiliation chess. It sparked plenty of national publicity, most jokingly asking how the Bulldogs will play 16 “league games” in 2026.
They won’t.
In response to the schedule releases, the Board of Directors for the University of Louisiana System filed an amended lawsuit (see attachment below) late Friday afternoon with the Third Judicial District Court in Lincoln Parish on behalf of Louisiana Tech University versus Conference USA. The amended suit replaces the original March 5 filing which was first reported by the Lincoln Parish Journal.
When asked for an official comment, Louisiana Tech University released the following statement Monday.
“In our February 13 letter to CUSA we urged them not to include Louisiana Tech in the football schedule. We have made it perfectly clear since July 2025 that Louisiana Tech will not play any football games as a member of the Conference in 2026. To include our university in any schedule is misleading and, frankly, disingenuous given the exchanges of communications over the past months.
“The Conference knew that Louisiana Tech was withdrawing long ago and had ample time to adjust its scheduling accordingly. This move is crucial to the health and well being of our student athletes. For our fans, we look forward to renewing rivalries in the Sun Belt Conference this fall with UL-Lafayette and Southern Miss in Joe Aillet Stadium and a visit to our neighbors in Monroe.”
Conference USA then responded Saturday by filing a Notice of Removal (see below) to federal court in the Western District based on diversity jurisdiction, requesting that the lawsuit be dealt with in federal court instead of state court.
This means the state court is immediately divested of jurisdiction, meaning the hearing originally scheduled for Thursday (March 19) will not take place. The ULS and Louisiana Tech will likely file a motion requesting to bring it back to state court.
The amended lawsuit filed by the ULS on Friday has two key changes to it.
The first has to do with Count 1 (Temporary, Preliminary and Permanent Injunctive Relief) and the second was an additional Court 3 (although it fell at the end of Count 2 on the amended lawsuit, see below attachment).
At the time the original petition was filed, Louisiana Tech was not on the Sun Belt Conference’s schedule since it had not been released. However, once the Sun Belt released the schedule with Louisiana Tech as part of it, it created an operational impossibility as its teams cannot compete in two leagues at the same time which became the basis of the amended Count 1 for injunction (paragraphs 26, 31, 33-38, 40-42).
Count 1 now states “Tech’s participation in the SBC for the 2026-27 academic year is not a development that arose from this litigation. Tech’s July 14, 2025 withdrawal notice expressly identified July 1, 2026 as its exit date and Tech has consistently stated it would be departing for the SBC on that date from that point forward. The operational conflict now before this Court is the direct and foreseeable consequence of CUSA’s decision to pursue financial resolution exclusively for months before unilaterally placing Tech on its schedule publicly released on March 12, 2026.”
Count 2 is exactly the same but the amended lawsuit effectively included a 3rd Count added on the end of Count 2 under Declaratory Relief: Grant of Rights Agreement (see page 26 of amended lawsuit, paragraphs 87 through 92).
Conference USA has alleged Louisiana Tech has to buy out of a Grant of Rights Agreement executed June 26, 2023, and effective July 1, 2023.
The amended lawsuit states “CUSA has invoked the GoRA as both a basis for financial demands extending through 2029 and as leverage against Louisiana Tech’s withdrawal from the Conference. An actual and justiciable controversy therefore exists concerning the parties’ respective rights and obligations under that agreement. A declaration of the GoRA’s proper scope and effect is necessary to resolve the dispute between the parties and to prevent CUSA from asserting rights under the GoRA that exceed its contractual purpose.”
This is asking the court to interpret Tech’s obligations under the GoRA with Conference USA.
Tech officials have stated their reasons for notifying CUSA of it’s plan to depart on July 1, 2026, and the desire to reach what it considers fair financial terms with their current league.
“Our move to the Sun Belt enhances the experience of our student athletes, renews regional rivalries, and significantly benefits the Louisiana economy,” said an official statement on March 5. “Additionally CUSA has previously acknowledged the difficulty of crafting an 11-team schedule if we were to remain next year. We have tried to offer a fair financial resolution to this dispute and are hopeful that we can resolve it without resorting to prolonged litigation.”
For now, the game of chess continues for Tech fans.
