If you ask me, I’m not sure what the problem is.
The 2026 football schedule for Louisiana Tech came out last week and if you put together their Conference USA and Sun Belt Conference schedules, the Bulldogs have 20 games lined up.
I say “Giddyup!”
Oh sure, national headlines loved this one and surely some entity is at fault for this craziness.
What fault? What craziness? Tee it up, boys!
Tech tried to break up with its current sweetheart (Conference USA) with a Dear John letter a few months ago but apparently it didn’t take. C-USA knew that the Bulldogs were falling in love with another and is now refusing to go down without a media fight.
About 4.5 seconds after the Sun Belt published its schedule showing Tech with eight conference games, jilted C-USA did the same.
In reality, Conference USA doesn’t want Tech, but it does want Tech’s debit card. Big surprise, huh? You think they are crying in the C-USA home offices about the loss of that time-honored regional rivalry that is Louisiana Tech vs. Delaware?
But forget all the ensuing court cases and back-room negotiating. There’s a very simple solution, if we may paraphrase Chicago Cub legend Ernie Banks …
“Let’s play 20!”
Oh, you say they can’t do that because the NCAA limits a school’s schedule (in most cases) to 12 games? The key part to that last sentence is N-C-A-A.
You know, the organization that allllways wins when they take someone to court. The organization that has been without teeth or a spine for a few decades now. What exactly are they going to do about it? Shoot out the tires on the Tech bus? Fill the school’s inbox with spam emails?
Here’s the great part of all of this: Tech could actually play these 20 games with only a minimal amount of finagling. Thanks to the idiotic agreement that C-USA made a few years ago that makes Wednesday games as the centerpiece of the conference schedule (yet another reason Tech wants out), the Bulldogs wouldn’t have a single conflict until November 7.
The first five weeks are standard Saturday games, then it’s time to get jiggy with it — Thursday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday.
Gas up the bus!
However, there are a couple of challenges. On Nov. 7, the ‘Dogs are scheduled to play at Jacksonville State and Troy State on the same day. The good news? Both of those schools are in Alabama. The bad news? There are still three hours apart. It’s probably asking too much to play a game, jump on a bus for a 3-hour trip and kick it off again.
Same goes for the final week of the season (November 28) when Tech will be playing at Western Kentucky and Georgia Southern. But if you think that’s a problem, think again.
There are 105 guys on a roster in college football, so Tech could just do like baseball does in spring training and have split squad games. The NFL somehow gets by with a 53-man roster, which is basically what you’d have (times two).
Hey, there’s multiple Harlem Globetrotter teams playing every night; why not multiple Louisiana Tech squads as well?
Here’s another bonus: Let’s say the Bulldogs play 20 games and manage a .500 record. Guess what? They’d get to puff their collective chests out and proudly proclaim about having a 10-win season. By the way, Tech has done that only once in the last 40 years.
All those school benefactors would be getting a lot more bang for their NIL buck and think about the ticket revenue from having nine home games. That’s a financial windfall that would put the new Buc-ee’s at Exit 83 in Lincoln Parish to shame.
And there is one final potential benefit. Think about what it would be like if Tech were to win both conference titles. Louisiana Tech could be facing Louisiana Tech in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
Beaver Nuggets for everyone!
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com