{"id":585292,"date":"2026-04-15T07:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/585292\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:45:14","slug":"louisiana-tech-to-pay-record-exit-fee-to-leave-cusa-join-sun-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/585292\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana Tech to pay record exit fee to leave CUSA, join Sun Belt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs are set to pay a Conference USA record exit fee to join the Sun Belt Conference, a move that would resolve a dispute that briefly left the Bulldogs scheduled for 20 games this fall, <a href=\"https:\/\/frontofficesports.com\/louisiana-tech-conference-usa-sun-belt-football-exit-fee-utep\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Front Office Sports<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Sources told FOS the fee will exceed the $8 million UTEP is paying to leave for the Mountain West, though the exact figure has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>When Louisiana Tech first announced plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/fbschedules.com\/louisiana-tech-accepts-invitation-to-join-sun-belt-conference\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">join the Sun Belt<\/a> no later than July 1, 2027, its initial CUSA exit fee was estimated at roughly $5 million. If the payment tops UTEP\u2019s $8 million, it would push Louisiana Tech\u2019s departure into eight-figure territory \u2014 a sharp contrast with the six schools that left CUSA in 2022-23, none of which paid more than $3 million.<\/p>\n<p>On3-owned Bleed Tech Blue reported Monday that Louisiana Tech and CUSA had reached an agreement \u201cclearing the way for the Bulldogs to officially join the Sun Belt on July 1, 2026.\u201d A CUSA spokesperson told FOS that \u201cboth parties remain in settlement negotiations, but an agreement has not been finalized\u2014contrary to the Bleed Tech Blue report.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: BleedTechBlue has learned that Louisiana Tech and Conference USA have reached an agreement clearing the way for the Bulldogs to officially join the Sun Belt on July 1, 2026. A formal announcement is expected later this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BleedTechBlue (@BleedTechBlue) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleedTechBlue\/status\/2043704979437785515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The dispute dates to July, when Louisiana Tech announced its Sun Belt intentions and CUSA cited a 14\u2011month notice requirement. Louisiana Tech sued CUSA in March seeking an early exit; both conferences subsequently released 2026 schedules that included the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n<p>With the dispute headed for a resolution, Louisiana Tech\u2019s Sun Belt schedule should remain as announced. Conference USA will have to release a revised schedule following the departure of the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Presented for entertainment purposes only. \ud83d\udc40\ud83e\udd23 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sztYLO58ED\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/sztYLO58ED<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FBSchedules\/status\/2032508302333005868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fbschedules.com\/ncaa\/louisiana-tech\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Future Louisiana Tech Football Schedules<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs are set to pay a Conference USA record exit fee to join the Sun&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,234997,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-585292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-louisiana-tech","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}