Speculation regarding adding a 14th member to the Sun Belt Conference in the wake of Texas State’s defection out west drew some ire from local fans, particularly fans of the black and gold, but adding Louisiana Tech was a logical decision that resulted in a unanimous vote and made official Tuesday.
In today’s college sports scene, once you get past the SEC and the Big Ten, being unique should be the top priority for the rest of the conferences, particularly in the Group of Five. The Sun Belt prides itself on regionality, which is an attribute long lost in the days of the University of California-Berkely playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Rutgers and Southern Cal being conference mates.
Texas State was already an outlier in the Sun Belt’s regional holding, as it was, by far, the furthermost West team beyond the Sabine River. It’s a six-hour drive from San Marcos, Tex. to Lafayette, La. – the closest Sun Belt city to Texas State. Now they’ll have to deal with the Pac-12 (12 being a misnomer) in their latest venture.
Out of the Southern states, the Sun Belt has holdings in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, with Kentucky and Tennessee being the lone states in the region not represented. Western Kentucky was a team that many Sun Belt fans wanted to be added to the conference, but Louisiana Tech was ultimately the team chosen.
And I get the criticism that the Louisiana market is now firmly oversaturated. After all, you can make the drive from the campus of Louisiana-Monroe to Louisiana Tech in under two hours. Then there’s Louisiana down the road in Lafayette. But on the other side of that coin, regional rivalries are what makes this conference so intriguing – particularly in the West division. Southern Miss and South Alabama are natural rivals due to the short distance between the two schools, but the Golden Eagles gained a new arch-rival in Louisiana. Both incumbent Louisiana schools have on-field beef with Louisiana Tech, who was arguably Southern Miss’ biggest rival in the later stages of its Conference USA tenure.
Sure, Louisiana Tech has seen its support dwindle in recent years, with Southern Miss beat reporter Scott Watkins noting the Golden Eagles’ athletics budget increasing from $25 million to $30 million since 2020 with Louisiana Tech’s shrinking from $23 million to $22 million. Fan support has fallen as well, with the Bulldogs failing to have a winning season in football since before the pandemic.
But I will counter that staying in a struggling CUSA didn’t do Louisiana Tech any favors, as the conference that once boasted Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis and Houston now features lowly programs such as Sam Houston State, Kennesaw State, Missouri State and Florida International. There isn’t a lot to be excited about with that competition and lack of true rivalries.
While Louisiana Tech doesn’t necessarily add much to the Sun Belt, it isn’t a bad move by any means. The conference actually strengthens its regionality while adding more rivalries, which is never a bad thing. Sure, substituting Louisiana Tech for Texas State as a one-to-one move isn’t good on paper, but change is constant in the modern college sports world. You never know when the next school will be looking to move on to greener pastures, which is the unfortunate reality of the Group of Five. The Sun Belt can’t compete with the lucrative television deals of the Pac-whatever or the Big 12 – and they aren't even at the same level of the American Athletic Conference in that way.
But I keep circling back to this – it is important to be unique if you’re not the top two conferences. What makes the Sun Belt the “Fun Belt” isn’t just the entertaining games that can be seen on a weekly basis, but it’s the fact that they still do it the old-school way with teams that don’t like each other going toe-to-toe.
Louisiana Tech isn’t a perfect fit, but don’t tell me you’re not looking forward to the discourse between their fans and fans of Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe and Southern Miss. I know I am.
