DRAMA: Louisiana Tech vs Conference USA—Will Sun Belt SECURE Their Future Amid DELAYS?

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Day or Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite Lockdown show, access to a member's only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. What exactly is going on between La Tech and Conference USA? And is there a chance the Bulldogs will not be playing football in the Sun Belt in the 2020-26 season? Let's talk about it next, Lockdown Sun Belt. You are a Lockdown Sun Belt, your daily podcast on the Sun Belt Conference, part of the

1:05Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. All right Dave, show a Lockdown Sun Belt, your team's every day. So with the basketball wrapping up, and baseball kicking off to the Sun Belt this weekend, we figured we have a little bit of a whole, let's talk a little La Tech Conference USA because it seems to be ramping up, and there seems to be a lot going on that I'm certainly not aware of. Bring it on, Matt Belenson. He's the beat writer for the Rustin Daily Leader for Louisiana Tech, and he fills us in. There's a lot going on. We're going to talk about Texas State Out, La Tech in, La Tech versus Conference USA, and is there a schedule deadline or a deadline that the Sun Belt needs to have La Tech in for their scheduling? Because I'm here and from folks that there is no schedule and that is hurting ticket sales in the Sun Belt. So let's get to it. He is Matt Belenson. He is the beat writer for the Rustin Daily Leader covering Louisiana Tech Sports, and

2:07he is locked on Sun Belt. Three, two, one. Welcome back to another edition of Lockdown Sun Belt, your teams every day. So there's a ton going on with the Sun Belt, Troy Wins, the Sun Belt Conference Men's Tournament, Jammu Wins the Women's. We got baseball, Sun Belt opening up conference play. There's another thing going on. It is La Tech versus Conference USA, which doesn't seem that Sun Belt is involved with that at all except the Sun Belt is waiting for La Tech in Conference USA to figure out what they got going on. All right. We bring in Matt Belenson. He is the La Tech beat writer for the Rustin Daily Leader. Really appreciate it, Matt. So before we move forward, let's go back, right, watching Coastal Carolina last year, first game of the college world series, and Pete Thamel announces, Texas State is out. They're going to the Pac 12 2.0, and La Tech appears to be in. It took at least another six weeks for that to happen. All right. Do you have any dates corresponding to that part of the story? Yeah. Appreciate you having me on.

3:07I think the first thing I would mention is, ever since Ryan Ivy took over is the AD at Louisiana Tech, he's dropped a little hints that Conference USA might not have been the best fit for Louisiana Tech. And so I would say that the groundwork has been in motion. I think since Ivy took over in February two years ago in 2024, and so this is something that I think in background that he's just been trying to put in motion. Like you mentioned, obviously, I think when Texas State officially left the Sun Belt, I think that's when Louisiana Tech finally recognized, hey, we got to put our foot forward here. And we got it to declare to the Sun Belt. We have some interest here. And obviously, the Sun Belt reached out to them as well. You know, I do know that obviously in July, that's with July of 2025, that's when the official invite came from the Sun Belt to join the league. And obviously a couple of days later, Louisiana Tech officially accepted that invite and then had their official press conference and saying, how exciting it's going to be. And then obviously, again, talking through the negotiations with Conference USA and hoping at that time that it would lead to a July 2026 entry point. That's all we've been hearing from Conference officials and from Louisiana Tech officials.

4:10And, you know, I think that was kind of the common knowledge. And then obviously the last couple of weeks here with this latest lawsuit from Louisiana Tech wanting to officially leave the conference, it definitely has added a new wrinkle to this already messy situation. All right. So there's a certain podcast in Lafayette. I'll just call it out, Rage and Review, who doesn't seem to allow the previous AD to forget what he said about Conference USA, but we'll just leave it at that shout out to Rage and Review. All right, so those dates are important because the Texas State stuff was known. All right, it took a little bit of time, but it was known. I got the idea from Keith Gill, the Sun Belt Commissioner. They had to wait until that was actually official before they could even start to meet on who they're bringing it in. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you look through not only the lawsuit filings, but also a couple of weeks, you know, a couple of months ago, I should say, when Conference USA filed a lawsuit against Louisiana Tech, accusing them of, you know, withholding some public records, you know, that lawsuit was

5:12related to Conference USA, kind of what you're saying, viewing that maybe Louisiana Tech had some back channel dealings, you know, with the sun, but with the Sun Belt and was not maybe communicating those things properly to Conference USA to give them a proper notice as far as, you know, the buyout figures and things like that. But if you look through all of the, you know, the documents that are listed on both, you know, suits, you clearly see that, you know, Louisiana Tech president Jim Henderson, you know, Louisiana Tech athletic director Ryan Ivy, really starts conversations with the Sun Belt, you know, right around that July, you know, kind of late May, you know, kind of, you know, June, July, you know, kind of period where it's very, like you said, very clear that Texas State was eventually going to be leaving, you know, the Sun Belt Conference. Then obviously the official letters, you know, come in in July. So like I said before, I think the official kind of, you know, hey, let's put it on letterhead, you know, type of conversations, I think officially started in July, but certainly, you know, early June as well, you know, we clearly see in multiple documents that, you know, Louisiana Tech had some correspondence with the league as well. So I think, like you mentioned, once Texas State made that jump, I think it was pretty clear that, you know, late summer, it was kind of time for Louisiana Tech to get in the waters there.

6:15Talk to Matt Bellison, Rustin Daily Leader, La Tech, beat writer. All right, we're talking about La Tech, Conference USA, and the Sun Belt. All right, what was the expected timeline? Because I'll be honest with you, Matt, kind of from the outside looking in, kind of felt like this was supposed to get done, say by the end of 2025. And maybe even say Halloween-ish, because schedules are kind of put together. They know what it is. It may not be officially announced, but they kind of get an idea. This stuff has to be done almost a year in advance. Was that what was expected from La Tech? And when did we realize maybe there was going to be a little bump in the road? Yeah, definitely the end of 2025 was I think the expected deadline for, you know, just getting the 2026 plans in order. Because like you mentioned, it wasn't too long ago that Southern Miss was still on Louisiana Tech's non-conference schedule. Even after, you know, they officially accepted the invite from the Sun Belt, like at the time, without knowing what their football future would be, like they still, for the longest period of time, they didn't really

7:16know what their non-conference late looked like. And then we saw, you know, late 2025, they officially announced their non-conference late with LSU, North Western State, Baylor, and Army, and took Southern Miss off that slate, expecting that they would play them, you know, in the conference schedule, obviously, in the fall of 2026. I think we started to realize that there were things were going to be in trouble. I think late January, early February, I think when we were not hearing from not only conference USA, and we were not hearing from the Louisiana Tech either. I mean, I was throwing out multiple feelers to tech officials just saying, hey, where do things stand? And it is very clear in back-channel conversations that like, hey, we have not had we have not had extensive conversations with the Sun Belt or conference USA, as far as like when we're officially entering yet, we're hoping to have those conversations. But it kind of just kind of kept coming back to like, hey, you know, we're hoping to meet, we're hoping to find a negotiation period that, you know, nothing definitive. And then you clearly see in multiple documents in the lawsuit that Louisiana Tech filed against conference USA that there's multiple occasions where Louisiana Tech points out that they're ready to meet with with conference USA and

8:18saying, like, hey, we, you know, we, we are ready. Here's our offer that Louisiana Tech presents multiple offers and, you know, on multiple occasions conference USA, you know, either denies the initial offer or just refuses to meet. So it's definitely one of those things that I think Louisiana Tech, from their standpoint, feels like, you know, for the last couple months, pretty much honestly, since July when they officially accepted the end of it, they certainly feel like they have put their best foot forward and tried to go to conference USA in good faith. The conference certainly feels like Louisiana Tech owes some more money than the Louisiana Tech is willing to owe right now. And so that's clearly why you see that, you know, March 19th is when the hearing data is scheduled for this lawsuit. I think to hopefully be resolved at some point. Yeah, we'll get to all of that. So it feels like with your, what you've described is that conference USA is intentionally slow playing this whole thing. I mean, it certainly seems that way. I mean, again, when you, when you have the Louisiana Tech officially accept the invite in July of 2025 and they give you multiple months of notice, it's certainly one of those things where I think if you're conference USA, like,

9:21I don't really know what else you're basically waiting on. I guess outside of maybe the negotiations as far as, you know, again, hey, here, we feel like you still owe us just your conference, you know, buy out portion and things like that, your TV revenue. Other than that, I don't really know what the explanation the reason could be. So I certainly feel like the language that you use as far as slow playing, it certainly seems like that's that is the case with conference USA. Because again, Louisiana Tech is clearly written out in the lawsuit, the filings that the Louisiana Tech has tried multiple occasions to meet with conference USA officials to try and get them, you know, to the negotiating table and, you know, for whatever reason conference USA has slow played it. And again, I don't really know the tactic behind that. Certainly conference USA would have to answer that. But, you know, from Louisiana Tech standpoint, like you mentioned, it certainly has slowed things up on their end as far as when a what 2026 holds. Let's take a time out. We'll come back and continue our conversation with the Russandale leaders Matt Belsen, La Tech beat writer. We talk about when La Tech was supposed to give notice, according to the conference USA bylaws, the amount of money that the sides are trying to agree on and there seems to be a huge discrepancy between the two

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14:35every day. Let's continue our conversation with Matt Bellenson. We talk about the date deadline that La Tech went past because of circumstances. We're talking about the money involved between the two conference USA and La Tech and what could be a hilarious but probably sad situation if it gets that far. He's Matt Bellenson. He covers La Tech and he is locked on sunbelt. Matt Bellenson, Rustin Daily Leader, talking La Tech Sports. He is the beat writer for the newspaper covering Louisiana Tech. So let's go back to the bylaws because this is the sticking point, I think in the whole deal outside of the cash. When was Louisiana Tech supposed to notify them if they want to leave the conference? It's not 12 months, right? Was it supposed to be by the end of May last year? Yeah, basically, if you're going by the timeline of what the conference USA bylaws are, then yes, technically it was supposed to be May. But again, if you're just going off the timeline of when these leagues kind of have their emotions, I mean, I'll begin. The invite from the sunbelt was not officially sent until July. Obviously, if Louisiana Tech is not disputing the fact that

15:41just based on the bylaws themselves, that they certainly did not give the written by the numbers notice. They certainly know that they have to give conference USA some sort of buyout figure and know that they have to owe them something extra. But I think it's just a matter of again, I think conference USA from their standpoint, I think they're trying to basically, from what I've been told from the Louisiana Tech side is they're basically trying to set precedent while something is happening. If you go back to when Southern Miss, Marshall and Old Dominion left the sunbelt a couple years ago, you look through their exit. They were able to have a pretty, obviously, that they were lawsuits involved there, but it was a pretty clean split as far as like, hey, here's what you owe us and you can pay it and then you get to leave. For whatever reason, conference USA is not following that model now. It's now adding on an additional year of the grain of rights that they feel like Louisiana Tech owes. So I certainly feel like they're trying to add precedent, you know, basically in a situation that is unfolding. And I think that's where, I think kind of some of the sticking point is still coming. And I think Louisiana Tech is trying to argue, well, if you go back to the precedent you set, you know, three years ago, I guess four years ago now with these three other teams, like, you know, all they had to do was pay this one year.

16:45And now you're asking us to pay additional on top of that for some reason. So I think that's just kind of the sticking point is why they're now deciding to change their bylaws. I think what they're pointing to, obviously, is if you look through the documents, UTEP basically is just kind of rolled over. They basically have just said to, you know, conference USA, like, yeah, you know, what will pay, you know, the two years, whatever you want. And you know, we'll just kind of accept whatever you want us to pay. And I think Louisiana Tech is certainly trying to push back on that a little bit more. Well, we'll get to the figures that you pointed out. There's a huge discrepancy there. So this is, this is more than just, um, conference USA being petty in the deadline, when they were supposed to do it by, I think it's May 31st, 2025. And they gave, you know, notice in July. So it was basically six, seven weeks later that this whole thing is being held up. That's probably not what it is. It's about the money. Uh, all right. So let's go into these lawsuits because it was conference USA, not really doing a lawsuit, but doing a freedom of information act, trying to find out information. Did conference USA find out anything other than when those

17:49back channels started and you're telling me law tech is admitting to those? Yeah. I mean, essentially all that conference USA really got out of that lawsuit was I think they got paid at, you know, lawyers fees. And then I think that Louisiana Tech basically had to submit a couple more public records to the league office. But really, if you look through the, the public records suit, really all that conference USA was arguing was that if you go through the Louisiana board of systems, you know, kind of agenda for, you know, basically the summer and early fall when, you know, a lot of these basically, you know, negotiations and just kind of things are supposed to be tabled and brought to the Louisiana system. You know, it's very clear that Jim Henderson, you know, had multiple public record meetings. Like the documents were available for public viewing, you know, so it wasn't exactly a state secret. And so I think that's what Louisiana Tech argued was they weren't really exactly sure what conference USA felt like Louisiana Tech was withholding. And so I certainly feel like from the conference standpoint, you know, again, I guess they won the battle as far as the court did issue that Louisiana Tech had to, you know, pay the, if you pay conference USA, I should say, you know, a couple thousand dollars in lawyer fees and

18:50just some things like that. But outside of that, there really wasn't much, you know, discovered. And again, like I mentioned, I think it was pretty clear. And again, publicly available that at Jim Henderson and Ryan IV and Louisiana Tech officials were having conversations with the Sunbelt in the summertime. And so I think the fact that those, I guess, documents maybe weren't presented clearly enough for conference USA. I don't know really know what the issue was. If you look through the public records suit, it's pretty clear that Louisiana Tech sent the information that was requested. So I think again, it's just one of the situations where I think conference USA just wanted to make sure that one of its longest, you know, running league members was just leaving on good terms. And I think at that time, I think, you know, it's pretty clear to just say, hey, water under the bridge, but clearly now Louisiana Tech is kind of putting its foot in the ground and say, you know, what? Forget you. And we're going to, we're going to leave you on our own terms, basically. All right. We have Matt, Matt, Matt Bellison, Rustin Daily leader, B-writer for Louisiana Tech Sports. Not going to miss the deadpan joke there where you said state secret, both literally and figuratively in Louisiana. That didn't get past me. All right, although that's the funny part in Louisiana. Nothing is a state secret. Everybody knows everything.

19:52That happens in Louisiana. So that's the funny part. All right. So now let's move up to La Tech suing conference USA. What was that all about other than because it seemed like it was three different things, right? They wanted temporary, preliminary and permanent, which those are three different things. Yeah. I mean, essentially, I just boil it down to basically, if you look through the lawsuit, essentially, if you go through the timeline, so Louisiana Tech accepts the offer from the Sun Belt in July. And basically for the next couple months throughout 2025, Louisiana Tech and conference USA officials, they met in Dallas. They tried to get some negotiations started. And then basically conference USA basically tells Louisiana Tech, well, hey, why don't you come back to us and why don't you present your official offer. And then we can go from there. Louisiana Tech presents that offer. It's denied. And then basically isn't really a whole lot of chatter for the next couple of months. And then Louisiana Tech comes back to conference USA. It's basically like, hey, we're making sure that you guys understand that we are not playing football in this conference

20:56in 2026. We just want to make sure you guys are on the same page. Conference USA basically comes back and says, well, according to our bylaws, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like you guys aren't allowed to leave until July 2027. And then essentially, if you go through the timeline of the lawsuit, you go to basically, I guess we'll scroll down here to about, you know, January, January 5th, Louisiana Tech sends its best and final offer. That's that's official quotes from the from the lawsuit. The final offer, Louisiana Tech offer was a payment of just over a million dollars. They're forfeiture of conference USA revenue for 2025, 2026. And at the annual obligation to compensate conference USA for the increase in media rights, obviously caused by the loss of Louisiana Tech up to $250,000 for the next three years. And then basically three weeks later, conference USA responds to the text final offer and basically says, that's a nice offer, but, you know, no thanks. And so then if you go after that, after tech sends its final offer and conference USA declines, you then see in the suit that conference USA, although it hasn't been officially released, you know, on the league website or things like that, the court documents clearly show that

22:00Louisiana Tech was sent a 2026 football schedule with Louisiana Tech on it, plain and conference USA. So I think back from Louisiana Tech was basically the final straw of saying like, okay, we've tried to have negotiations with this conference. We've tried to give you our best offer and every single time we're not even met with a counter, we're not met with any sort of, you know, hey, here's a negotiation window. It's just a flat no. And then the conference comes back and says, you guys are playing. And so I think that's basically just where Louisiana Tech was left was, okay, well, here, this was our last offer. You denied it. And then you basically try to play hardball and put us on the schedule. So now this is our last resort. And we have to sue you. Like you mentioned, they asked the judge, you know, the third judicial court and link here at Lincoln Parish to basically issue a restraining order, basically on conference USA, so that they couldn't, you know, basically put Louisiana Tech on their schedules. But then obviously conference USA kind of came back with an interesting, I guess, rebuttal, which obviously did not, you know, obviously, turn out because obviously Louisiana Tech is playing in the men's basketball women's basketball tournaments. But their argument was basically, okay, well, if you issue this immediate restraining order, then technically Louisiana Tech is not a conference USA member. So we're not going to,

23:03we're not going to broadcast, you know, their basketball tournament games. And so it was just a crazy situation. Obviously, of course, that did not pan out. And the judge denied the restraining order. And so like I mentioned earlier, the March 19th hearing date is when I think, hopefully, most of this will be resolved. But again, you know, who knows, with just how this lawsuit has paned out so far. Alright, so some of this is blowing my mind. Obviously, conference USA is being incredibly petty because every time you just, every time that law tech came with an offer, they just rejected it. Did they ever counter? Yeah, I mean, if you look through the suit, I mean, basically the only counter that we see from, I guess, the conference USA side of things, if I'm looking through the documents here, let me see if I can find it just to make sure. Yes, okay. So conference USA, ash Louisiana Tech to basically forfeit, you know, obviously it's green of rights amount and which would amount to about 3.8 million for 2024, 2025, along with a late notice charge of about $825,000. So basically, about over $5 million is basically what conference USA believes that Louisiana Tech owes. And then if you go back to what I just said,

24:05that Louisiana Tech's final offer was, it's probably hovering around, you know, probably 3 million, maybe a little bit under that. I mean, so there's a, there's a wide gap there as far as like, again, if you're talking about the over the little over a million dollars plus, you know, what they were expected to give as far as the loss of media rights, like it probably totaled close to $3 million. See, the numbers that I saw from you was more like $750,000 to five and a half million dollars. And now you're telling me, La Tech up to $3 million and conference USA is still saying no? Well, so basically if you go back through that tweet, so that the initial 750, that was, that was Louisiana Tech's first offer. First off, that they, that they were able to give you basically out to the Dallas meeting in August and basically said, hey, here's, here's what we're just initially throwing out there. What do you guys think? That was when it was officially denied. And then Louisiana Tech's final offer, like I mentioned, you know, again, if we're going back to what just, you know, basically the story wrote, wrote basically a little over a million dollars. And then basically have, you know, obviously the conference USA is going to

25:06lose part of its media rights, just, you know, revenue, just from giving the fact that a league member is leaving up to $250,000 annually for the next three years. So you add that on top of the basically over a million dollars. And then you add on top of that, the forfeiture of the entire USA revenue for the 2025, 2026 school year. So you're looking at close to three million dollars. And so I think again, like that's where the discrepancy comes in where, again, you know, conference USA, they're not, they're not only including the 2025 revenue that, that Louisiana Tech is basically willing to basically forfeit. They're also including the 2024 25 basically year of revenue because from the conferences standpoint, again, they view that, okay, well, Louisiana Tech gave us such a, you know, late notice as basically trying to, you know, slow play us to keeping this revenue split. That's basically the biggest discrepancy is that conference USA believes that it that Louisiana Tech owes 2024 and 2025 plus 2025, 2026 on top of everything else. So I think that's where the biggest discrepancy comes in right now. This is insanity. All right, where I'm glad if I have

26:09Matt Bellison on from the Rustin Daily Leader talking us through what is an absolute mess because it feels like a P2B, perfectly honest, a petty could become petty, right? I mean, if conference USA says La Tech is playing and they make a schedule with La Tech in there, La Tech says, no, just no, we're going to the Sun Belt. I mean, is it judge going to be hilarious if a judge does a ruling, but then La Tech says, we don't care, right? We're just going to play at Sun Belt schedule. We have our audit conference games. We're going to have our conference games with the Sun Belt. We're going to play that schedule. You put us in that. You're just going to screw your other teams in conference USA because we ain't playing them. Yeah, that's basically the exact argument that Louisiana Tech is making and yeah, it is going to be funny if we do get to the point, hopefully not, but it would be funny if we get to the point in late March, you know, potentially early April when potentially the final ruling comes and you know, basically conference USA and Louisiana Tech are left to kind of a stalemate of basically, like you said,

27:09Louisiana Tech refuses to play in the league in 26, but the Sun Belt conference USA decides that they're going to make a schedule like, I don't know how you would decide that. And I mean, I would see again, like you're not going to send in the national guard to like force them to play middle Tennessee or something. I have no idea how that would play out, but like you mentioned, they do have their non conference slate, you know, at least on paper. So I guess they have something that they're going to play in 2026, but you know, as far as a conference schedule, yeah, I would certainly hope that these sides have come to resolution that we could just, regardless of what happens, I just want to know, you know, what what league this team is playing in in 2026. Let's take one more time out. We'll come back and wrap up our conversation with Matt Bellison, La Tech beat writer for the Rustin Daily leader. And we talk about, is there a deadline that the Sun Belt needs from La Tech and conference USA to settle this before they say, we'll see in 27. So we'll do that right after I tell you about coast and five hour energy. Coast Pay is giving lockdown college listeners up to $2,000 credit for your business when you get

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30:13That apple bites back crisp, tangy taste, deliciously tart, bold, a little sweet, and a lot sour. Find your new favorite flavor of five hour energy shots available online at fivehourenergy.com or Amazon available online at fivehourenergy.com or Amazon. Dave shows locked on some about your teams every day. Let's wrap up our conversation with Matt Belenson talking LaTek sports. Is there a date deadline that the Sunbelt has? So they can get their schedule out for 2026 where they just can't wait any longer and need to move forward and we'll just wait for Louisiana Tech to join in 2027. He's the beat writer for the Rustin Daily Leader. He's Matt Belenson covering LaTek and he has locked on. We hope Sunbelt. Well, we all would, but this I find all this fascinating. All right. So what exactly is going to happen at this March 19th hearing? Do we get an immediate ruling? Is this going to take a little

31:16bit? Obviously, you know, you know, the legal system works incredibly slow, but obviously the judge is going to be made clear. We need to hustle up. I mean, I could be a week, which wouldn't change anything, but he can't go a month and a half without make or she can make a decision. Yeah, certainly not that long, but again, if you go maybe just back to just kind of the relevant lawsuit, if you go to the public records, you know, that took about a month to truly be, you know, officially resolved. And again, that's just how to do with a couple of, you know, public records here and there. So obviously this is a much, you know, broader lawsuit, a much bigger situation. And you know, I would certainly hope that, you know, the judge in this case was certainly not, you know, slow play this because again, there are just multiple parties here that need to have some sort of answer. And you know, I would not expect a final ruling. I think in that March 19th hearing, I think basically both sides are just going to present their arguments and basically, you know, they're just going to, you know, tell the judge like, hey, here's basically all of the evidence that we have from both of our standpoints. And now we want you to rule. And I think he's going to, you know, obviously they're going to take some time and they're going to go throughout the next couple of days, you know, week hopefully and then maybe decide by then.

32:17I think if you're just looking at, you know, potential timeline, again, this is just my standpoint, you know, tech starts spring practice. I wrote this down. They start spring practice March 23rd and they end April 25th. Certainly if we're not hearing word, you know, by late March early April, hearing is coming close. Then I would really start to get worried about that they probably are going to play in conference USA in 26. And so I would certainly expect that some sort of ruling will be happening, you know, probably late March. If I had to take a guess, but again, like you mentioned, the legal system has its own, it has its own clock and you know, anything can happen. So I would certainly expect, you know, some sort of resolution here by the time that spring ball ends, but hopefully that's in March. Well, this won't only be about money, right? Because a lot of tech just wants to be about money, but conference USA is going to, which is amazing. They're trying to keep somebody that doesn't want to be in their conference. And also, a conference USA is not hoping for more money per say because the judge can come to an negotiation. That's the easy part. Converge USA is looking, let's just say screw law tech. Yeah, I mean, essentially, again, if you want to take it past, I guess the money at this point, I mean, yes, it certainly would seem

33:21that conference USA, because again, all you have to do is just come to the negotiating table and come to some sort of buyout figure if you're just truly about the money. And so, yeah, certainly, it seems like it has gotten to the point where conference USA just wants to make this split as difficult as possible for whatever reason for for Louisiana tech. And you know, certainly is a shame, because I certainly feel like both parties, I think it just kind of ran its natural course. Again, the Louisiana tech was in this conference for over a decade. They certainly had a lot of success, as far as, you know, football and baseball and obviously basketball here the last couple of years started to find some success in conference USA. And it certainly has been a fine league, but again, I think when you just look to the future, I think it's pretty clear why Louisiana tech wants to make them move to the sun belt. And frankly, I think it's pretty clear that conference USA, like just the landscape of the league is changing. Like again, conference Louisiana tech is making this argument in the lawsuit that the league that they joined back in 2013, it's not the same league at all. You basically have a bunch of FCS teams that have come up to play FBS football. I mean, you got Western Kentucky, you got Milton A.C., you got Louisiana tech and you got

34:21a couple other schools that have just kind of been hanging around. And then, you know, you got your Delaware's and things like that. So it's certainly a situation where I think Louisiana tech understands that conference USA's days, I think as far as one of the better G5, you know, conferences, those days are long gone. And I think they clearly recognize that the sun belt offers so much more opportunity. And I think if you're conference USA, I think it's honestly probably one of those things that they refuse to probably let go and probably, you know, realize that this conference is certainly sinking. It's not a conference that's growing, expanding. It's not a conference that excites a lot of people. And so I think they probably recognize that the writings on the wall, I think they're just trying to hold on to their last breath. All right, a couple more things from Matt Beltson, Rustin Daily Leader. We're talking about tech joining the sun belt at speaking of the sun belt. Have they been involved at all in this? Are they advising a lot tech? Are they talking to conference USA? It feels like the sun belt is, I don't know, but standing off to the side instead of trying to flex some muscle, I have no idea. Yeah, I mean, this is a conference USA, Louisiana tech issue at this point. And certainly, I'm, of course, you know, Keith Gill in the Sun Belt Administration. I,

35:22again, like you mentioned clearly wants an answer on this just because they have to bring together their own conference schedules. They have to have teams and hotels and all these things booked and in advance. And so I certainly know that like those officials have been talking with Louisiana tech just as far as like, hey, we're supporting you. But as far as like actually being in the room as far as like, you know, submitting phone calls and putting pressure on conference USA, like certainly nothing like that. But I certainly know that they are, they are anticipating that Louisiana tech will be playing in 2026. But again, you know, it's pretty much up to conference USA in the court at this point as far as, you know, how this thing gets resolved. Well, unfortunately, with these court rulings, there's always appeals. So whatever it is, you know, you could appeal it, whichever way it doesn't win could is going to probably appeal it, especially if it, well, either one of sides is going to say, I was going to say, especially if it's conference USA, but a lot of tech is going to appeal it as well. Do you know of any deadline that the sun belt has that says, hey, we'll see in 27. Yeah. I mean, there, there is no deadline as far as I know. Again, I do know from talking to Ryan Ivy, Louisiana techs, I thought I'd director. Again, this is

36:23certainly something that he recognizes that definitely by the time that spring football ends, like if they do not have like a definitive answer that they're joining the sun belt in 26, then like you mentioned, I think it's pretty safe to say that just giving the scheduling conflicts, like it would seem that 2027 would be most likely at that point. But again, I think they're hoping that this judge, you know, rules in their favor in a timely fashion. I think they're also hoping that maybe in a conference USA can come to their senses here. Maybe there can be some sort of, I would be fine on the final negotiation, and like it doesn't have to get to the point where it goes to a full-on trial and things like that. And you know, they just just kind of leave it at, you know, hey, we're presenting both of our sides, let the judge hear it, and then let's just come together, and let's just get this thing resolved. I think that's, I think that's what Louisiana tech is hoping for, but again, there certainly is going to become kind of a deadline. I would imagine from the sun belt of hey, like we're just going to have to move on without you at some point. All right, so the two dates we're worried about now, May 19th, and did you say this, the spring practice ends April 25th? Yeah, so March 19th is the date for the hearing. Yeah, and then yeah, and Louisiana tech starts spring practice the 23rd, and then it ends April 25th. So let's look in between,

37:27between March 19th and say May 1st for a ruling to get this settled. So we have certainly six, seven weeks before this gets done. All right. I would certainly expect it. Yes. All right. All right. Matt Belenson's going to spend some time in a courtroom. That's always fine. Well, that's what I signed up for when I decided to be a sports reporter. Yeah, make sure that phone is on silent. Just letting you know, pro tip. All right. Been there. Done that. I appreciate your time, Matt. That was fantastic. Matt Belenson from the Russian Daily Leader. Tell people how they can find you on social media. Yeah, yes, sir. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, you can follow me on Twitter at balance and Matt going to be posting obviously some updates on this. You're here in the coming weeks, and then you can follow all of our work on this lawsuit and everything that we've seen a tech related at russiandavelier.com. We really appreciate the time, Matt. Thanks for hopping on lockdown. Sunbelt. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you. You can just move through life or you can find the things that move you. It's your choice.

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