How a college football team ended up scheduled to play 20 games in the 2026 season

The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs may be facing a historically grueling football season this fall.

As of Friday, they are scheduled to play 20 regular-season games.

Louisiana Tech, which is currently embroiled in a legal dispute over its future conference membership, was included in 2026 schedule announcements by both its current league, Conference USA, and its previously announced future league, the Sun Belt.

Both CUSA and the Sun Belt list the Bulldogs as playing eight games within their conferences this fall. And thanks in large part to the preponderance of weeknight Group of 6 games, only two of those 16 matchups fall on the same date.

For example, in the span of eight days, Tech is currently listed as playing Saturday, Oct. 3 against Army (nonconference); Thursday, Oct. 8 at FIU (CUSA); and Saturday, Oct. 10 against Louisiana (Sun Belt).

It is slated for nine different games during the month of October alone.

The odd standoff comes after Louisiana Tech announced in July 2025 it would be leaving CUSA, its home since 2013, for the Sun Belt, “no later than July 1, 2027.” The school informed CUSA at the time that it planned to depart a year earlier than that, despite league bylaws requiring 14 months’ notice to depart the conference. Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss made the same move in 2022 by paying CUSA $1.75 million each to leave earlier than 14 months.

But CUSA and Louisiana Tech have not reached a similar agreement. Earlier this month, the school sued the conference seeking an injunction that would bar CUSA from placing Louisiana Tech on the conference’s 2026 football schedule and deem CUSA’s bylaws unenforceable, among other requests. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for March 19. However, the judge denied the school’s request for a temporary restraining order.

Neither CUSA, which announced its schedule including Louisiana Tech on Thursday, or the Sun Belt, which unveiled its slate Friday, made mention of the unusual situation in their releases.

Presented for entertainment purposes only. 👀🤣 pic.twitter.com/sztYLO58ED

— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) March 13, 2026

Louisiana Tech does have four nonconference games set in stone: Northwestern State (Sept. 5), at LSU (Sept. 12), at Baylor (Sept. 19) and Army (Oct. 3). CUSA has the Bulldogs opening conference play against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 26, while their potential Sun Belt opener against FIU would be 12 days later.

For the record, NCAA rules have long allowed schools to play a maximum of 12 regular-season games, though schools playing a game at Hawaii that season may count that as 13th game. And no, Hawaii is not one of Louisiana Tech’s 20 scheduled opponents.