For fans of Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, and Louisiana-Lafayette, strike up the band.
Happy days are here again.
Good ol’ competitive college hate.
Be true to your school and all that stuff.
Your intrepid reporter here was in college the most recent occasion that those three schools were in the same conference, the Southland — in 1982.
That’s a hard-to-believe 44 years ago.
But now they’re back. Three strands wrapped are hard to break.
Add a fourth in Southern Mississippi and at least a third of each school’s 12-game schedule is against rivals and, in Tech’s case, Hated Rivals. The best kind.
Old Tech fans will still call ULM Northeast. ULL is Southwestern. And Southern Miss is Mississippi Southern.
The dislike runs deep.
What a beautiful thing.
Now, the talking is taken up a notch because the wins and losses count toward a Sun Belt Conference title since the four teams — most importantly the three Louisiana teams — are bound together again, laced up in the same league.
Glory.
For Tech, which had wandered for good reasons at the time into the American West, the Western Athletic Conference, and Conference USA, the return to the Sun Belt has been a “Thank you Lord” moment for fans of the Bulldogs.
Besides the three schools already mentioned, add Arkansas State, South Alabama, and Troy and you’ve got six schools within a seven-hour drive radius of Ruston. In the WAC days, Tech traveled regularly to Hawaii and Fresno and Boise State; them ain’t day trips. It’s hard to go to Sunday school the next morning, much less study for a math test, when you get back from Moscow, Idaho at 6 a.m.
Last fall, Tech football was in Newark, Delaware one week, Pullman, Washington the next. That’s a haul. The travel adds up, even when you’re 20 or 21 and an athlete.
So besides Tech saving $1 million-plus dollars in travel, the schedule means less wear-and-tear on the athletes and more chances for fans to support their teams in person. Concerning their rooting against Tech, fans of ULM and ULL are in the same boat.
It’s refreshing that everyone can holler at everyone else in a stadium again instead of just on social media. Happy days …
And it’s beautiful that all these schools should make a bit more money in ticket sales, money they missed when a Coastal Carolina or Kennesaw State came to town.
Also, Tech is not in those silly weeknight games anymore. As an old dude, I love a midweek college game on television, but I’m not a college student, and college football Saturdays are a big part of being a college student.
Speaking of, Tech and ULL get to tee it up in Joe Aillet Stadium this Saturday at 6:30. The two haven’t met since 2015, and Tech’s won the most recent eight meetings.
That won’t mean squat Saturday in Tech’s first football game in the Sun Belt.
And just when you thought it could not get much better for north Louisiana’s Bulldog or Warhawk fans, the fun continues next week when Tech visits Malone Stadium for a 7 p.m. kick Saturday, Oct. 17, the first meeting between the two on the football field since 2000.
Why those two schools haven’t played each other in football in a quarter century is a riddle. But at least for now, it’s solved.
But first, ULL at Tech. Then ULM in Monroe. Back-to-back jack.
There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And for competition’s sake, that’s a good thing.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
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