by Malcolm Butler
According to Board of Regents member Wilbert Pryor, three Louisiana-based universities in the UL System need to be served a slice of “humble pie.”
Pryor, speaking during the Sept. 22 higher education hearings in Baton Rouge, said Louisiana Tech, ULL and ULM need to drop their respective football programs from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
“Schools that are trying to play Division I … that’s just a sinking hole trying to play Division I ball,” Pryor said in a story written by USA TODAY Network reporter Greg Hilburn and published Wednesday. “I don’t think much of the public would know the difference if they all play the same level, and it seems like they have to have a self-realization and put a humble cap on. They have to have a humble pie.”
State Rep. Chris Turner believes Pryor’s comments were more of a political sound bite not based on actual facts.
“When people on the Board of Regents are sitting on that platform and making comments without having all the facts, that bothers me,” Turner said. “Louisiana Tech has had financial challenges, including in athletics, but there have been a lot of steps taken under Jim Henderson and Ryan Ivey to correct those problems. We are on the right path, and I think you’re going to see evidence of that in the next couple of fiscal quarters.”
Turner was quick to point out that Louisiana Tech has not been immune to the financial challenges facing college athletics.
“We’ve all overspent in athletics in Louisiana, and one of the things Dr. Henderson and Ryan have been working on is correcting that at Louisiana Tech,” Turner said. “Our head football coach taking a pay cut is one example. Nobody is doing everything 100% right, but Tech is working to right the ship financially while continuing to improve the student experience and the reputation of the university.”
And there is evidence to support Turner’s words.
Athletically, one significant step Louisiana Tech has already taken is its move to the Sun Belt Conference, a decision university officials have repeatedly said was made in part with finances in mind. Tech officials have stated numerous times since the announcement in July 2025 that they expect the move to save approximately $1 million annually in travel costs while producing approximately $1.5 million in additional revenue.
That’s approximately $2.5 million annually in improvement to the athletics department’s net financial position.
“When you look at where we are in the move to the Sun Belt, we did that, in part, to create a path for financial sustainability,” Ivey said.
When Tech and Conference USA officially settled their separation terms in April, the university specifically cited “the fiscal stability of our athletics department” as one of the benefits of the move to the Sun Belt.
Two months later, the state Legislature appropriated $4 million to replace conference distribution revenue Tech lost during its departure from Conference USA, a strong statement from the state that it believed in the university’s move. Tech also received approximately $2.1 million through the state’s Sports Fund, according to Ivey, with future distributions potentially increasing.
At the time, Louisiana Tech Executive Vice President for External Affairs Cami Geisman called the move to the Sun Belt “a net positive not only for the fans, but a net positive for our budget.”
Henderson and Ivey told the Lincoln Parish Journal in May that Tech was studying ways to create new revenue streams through athletics.
“It’s about approaching athletics with a business mindset,” Henderson said at the time. “It’s not a business, right? If it was, no one would want to get into it as a money-making opportunity, but you can do some very smart things that make it fiscally sustainable.”
Ivey also corrected one of the central numbers cited during the Regents discussion. Pryor cited an approximately $17 million deficit for Louisiana Tech athletics. Ivey said that number is incorrect.
“It was not $17 million last year,” Ivey said. “It was $10 million.”
And Turner and Ivey both disputed the salary figure Pryor cited for Tech’s head football coach.
“The duties of the coach at Tech are the same at Nicholls, but one is getting paid $250,000 (Nicholls) and another is $1 million (Tech),” Pryor said during the same hearing.
However, Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie’s restructured contract pays him $760,000 annually, with $300,000 coming from university funds and the remainder funded through private giving to the Louisiana Tech University Foundation.
Should LSU’s Lane Kiffin — speaking of universities who operate in the red in athletics — make the same salary as the head coaches at Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State? After all, according to Pryor’s argument, aren’t the duties of the head coach the same?
But perhaps the biggest question surrounding Pryor’s suggestion is whether dropping from FBS to FCS would actually improve Louisiana Tech’s financial position.
That answer is no, according to Ivey.
“Going to FCS is not going to change our expenses dramatically, outside of some potential scholarship cost reductions,” Ivey said. “But it will decrease our revenues pretty drastically.
“Game guarantee payouts will be less. Media contracts, conference distribution revenue is going to go down. We’re going to see ticket sales go down based on who we’re playing. The revenue is going to take a reduction versus the expense line.”
Even potential scholarship savings aren’t as simple as they once were, according to Ivey.
With the changes brought about by the House settlement and new roster limits, Ivey said FCS programs have the ability to fund scholarships up to their applicable roster limits. How much a particular institution chooses to fund remains an institutional decision.
For Louisiana Tech, Ivey’s larger point is that changing classifications would not eliminate many of the fixed costs associated with operating an athletics department. It would, however, change the revenue opportunities available to it.
That’s an important difference in any discussion about whether moving Louisiana Tech — and ULM and ULL — from FBS to FCS would improve the university’s financial position.
History supports Ivey’s stance.
Over the past 25 years, two dozen college football programs have moved or announced moves from FCS to FBS. During that same period, only one has gone the other direction.
Idaho dropped from FBS to FCS in 2018 after the Sun Belt Conference elected not to renew the Vandals’ football-only membership.
In other words, while schools across the country have consistently invested in moving their football programs to the highest level of college football, almost none have chosen to go the other direction.
In an era when most Division I athletics departments operate in the red, if moving from FBS to FCS provided such significant financial savings, wouldn’t more schools have made that move?
At the end of the day, Turner said he isn’t opposed to Louisiana Tech (or any other state school) being asked difficult questions about its financial situation.
“I don’t have a problem with anybody asking the tough questions about our finances,” Turner said. “We should have to answer those questions. But if you’re going to make statements about Louisiana Tech and what we should or shouldn’t be doing, then you need to have the facts right.”
And perhaps that’s the biggest issue with Pryor’s comments for alums and fan bases of Louisiana Tech, ULM and UL Lafayette.
The ingredients to his humble pie aren’t quite right. And that may lead to something that has never happened before … unite three rival university fan bases to one common cause.
