The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs have taken off the gloves as they look to leave Conference USA in the dust and join the Sun Belt Conference for the 2026 college football season.
Tech was invited to become a Sun Belt program in July 2025, with an effective date for the transition slated as July 1, 2026.
Louisiana Tech notified C-USA of its plans to switch conferences, but then the conference decided to play hardball and change that effective date. Conference USA also included Louisiana Tech in its 2026 conference schedule, despite the fact that the Bulldogs had given their notice.
Now, according to Malcolm Butler of the Lincoln Parish Journal,Tech has decided to make this a legal matter: The Bulldogs are suing C-USA.
A “petition for temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctive relief and declaratory relief” was filed on Wednesday by the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System on behalf of Louisiana Tech.
It’s a 102-page document that includes 33 pages of the lawsuit and 69 pages of exhibits.
Louisiana Tech also released a statement on Thursday.
“Today, Louisiana Tech took a necessary step in the best interest of its student athletes,” the school said, per Butler. “When we joined Conference USA in 2013, its membership was different, its scheduling was different, and the landscape of college athletics was very different. Seven months ago, we notified C-USA of our intent to exit in July 2026. We have worked in good faith toward an amicable separation within conference by-laws. The proposed 2026 football schedule drafted by C-USA left us no choice but to pursue this remedy.
“Our move to the Sun Belt enhances the experience of our student athletes, renews regional rivalries, and significantly benefits the Louisiana economy. Additionally C-USA 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.”
The two parties met in July 2025, soon after Louisiana Tech made its intentions of leaving known, and Conference USA had asked the school to make a financial offer, basically as a severance agreement.
Louisiana Tech’s statement makes mention of that, saying that the school has made a “fair financial resolution.”
One would imagine money will ultimately be the difference in this dispute, because neither side will benefit from having this lawsuit drag out.
