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NEW ORLEANS — Fifty years after its founding in 1976, the Sun Belt Conference begins a new chapter in its history on Wednesday, July 1, as it officially welcomes Louisiana Tech to its 14-member conference.
“We are excited to officially welcome Louisiana Tech as a member of the Sun Belt Conference,” said Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill. “With a tradition of athletic success, a passionate fanbase and a geographic location situated within the current Sun Belt footprint, the addition of Louisiana Tech reunites a number of long-standing regional rivalries under the conference banner. As the premier FBS non-autonomy conference in the country, the Sun Belt Conference is RISING and our best days are ahead.”
The Sun Belt Conference was founded in 1976, began sponsoring football in 2001 and currently sponsors 19 NCAA sports. The conference owns a non-autonomy leading .548 bowl winning percentage during the College Football Playoff era. Since expanding to 14 football-playing members in 2022, the Sun Belt has led non-autonomy conferences in bowl representation in each of the past four seasons and has been a multi-bid league in eight different sports.
The 14-member conference includes App State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison, Louisiana, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Southern Miss and Troy.
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Louisiana Tech University, founded in 1894 and located in Ruston, La., is an R2 Research Institution that supports a student population of over 12,000. The school has won seven national championships—three in College Division (1972) or NCAA Division II football (1973 & 1974), three in AIAW (1981) or NCAA Division I women’s basketball (1982 & 1988) and one individual title in track & field. The football program has appeared in 15 bowl games all-time, with an 9-5-1 record, while the softball program has appeared in three NCAA Women’s College World Series (1983, 1985 & 1986).
Louisiana Tech sponsors 16 varsity sports. Men’s sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. Women’s sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Louisiana Tech participates in every sport sponsored by the Sun Belt Conference except beach volleyball, men’s soccer, men’s tennis and women’s golf. The Sun Belt Conference sponsors every sport in which the Bulldogs compete except women’s bowling.
Louisiana Tech was previously a member of the Sun Belt Conference from 1991-2001 and enjoyed success in a wide range of sports. The women’s basketball team won nine-straight Sun Belt regular-season titles from 1993-2001 and seven conference tournament championships, including six-straight from 1996-2001. The men’s basketball team won a pair of Sun Belt regular-season crowns (1992 & 1999), while the men’s indoor (1999), women’s indoor (2000) and women’s outdoor (1999) track & field programs each claimed a conference title.