2023 Bulldog Football Schedule

Date	Opponent	Location	Time	TV/Stream ^ Projected
August 26, 2023 (Saturday)	FIU	Ruston, La.	8:00pm	CBSSN
September 2, 2023 (Saturday)	SMU	Dallas, TX	11:00am	ESPNU
September 9, 2023 (Saturday)	Northwestern State	Ruston, La.	6:00pm	ESPN+
September 16, 2023 (Saturday)	North Texas	Ruston, La	6:00pm	ESPN+
September 23, 2023 (Saturday)	Nebraska	Lincoln, NE	2:30 PM	Big Ten Network
September 29, 2023 (Friday)	UTEP	El Paso, TX	8:00pm	CBSSN
October 5, 2023 (Thursday)	Western Kentucky	Ruston, La.	7:00pm	ESPN
October 10, 2023 (Tuesday)	Middle Tennessee	Murfreesboro, TN	6:00pm	CBSSN
October 24, 2023 (Tuesday)	New Mexico State	Ruston, La.	6:00pm	CBSSN
November 4, 2023 (Saturday)	Liberty	Lynchburg, VA	5:00pm	CBSSN
November 11, 2023 (Saturday)	Sam Houston State (Homecoming)	Ruston, La.	2:00pm	ESPN+
November 18, 2023 (Saturday)	Jacksonville State	Jacksonville, AL	1:00pm	ESPN+
December 1, 2023 (Friday)	C-USA Championship	TBD		CBSSN

Channels	Sling	DIRECTV STREAM	Hulu + Live TV	YouTube TV	Fubo TV	Vidgo Plus	Cable login App
Trial Offer (10/9/23)	50% off 1st Mo.	5-day Free Trial	$20 off for 3 mo	21-day free trial & $20 off for 3 mo	24-hour free Trial
Big Ten	Blue + Sports Extra	Choice	✓	✓	✓	✓	Fox Sports
FS1	Blue	Entertainment	✓	✓	✓	✓
FS2	Blue + Sports Extra	Ultimate	✓	✓	✓	✓
CBS Sports		Entertainment + Sports Pack	✓	✓	✓
ESPN / ESPN2	Orange	Entertainment	✓	✓	✓	✓
ESPNU	Orange + Sports Extra	Choice	✓	✓	✓ + Extra	✓
ESPN+ ($9.99/mo)			✓
ESPN 3	Orange		✓	✓	✓
Monthly Price as of 8/9/23	Orange $40 Blue $40 Orange + Blue $55 ---- Sports Extra Orange $11 Blue $11 Orange + Blue $15	Entertainment $81 Choice $108 Ultimate $119	$69.99 $76.99 (effective 10/12/23)	$72.99	Pro $86 * Extra $8 * Package costs change depending on Sports Fee	$70

FUTURE LOUISIANA TECH NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS

“Our philosophy will be to schedule one Power Five, two Group of Fives and one FCS each year." - AD Dr. Eric Wood

2024 08/31 vs Nicholls St ($325,000) 09/14 at NC State 09/21 vs Tulsa 11/23 at Arkansas ($1.65 million) CUSA (8 games): FIU (A), MTSU (A), WKU (A), UTEP (H), NMSU (A), Liberty (H), SHSU (A), Jacksonville St (H), or Kennesaw State Don't know the schedule will be handled with addition of KSU

2025 08/30 vs Southeastern Louisiana ($325,000) 09/06 at LSU ($1.6 million) 09/20 vs Southern Miss 09/27 at Tulsa

2026 09/12 vs. Northwestern State ($400,000) 09/19 at Southern Miss 09/26 vs UL-Lafayette @ TBD $$$

2027 09/11 vs Nicholls State ($350,000) 09/18 at Kansas 09/25 vs South Alabama @ TBD $$$

2028 09/09 - at North Texas 09/16 vs Kansas 09/23 - at San Diego State vs. TBD FCS or at TBD $$$

2029 09/08 at UL-Lafayette 09/15 vs San Diego State 09/22 vs Bowling Green @ TBD $$$

2030 vs FCS @ TBD G5 @ TBD $$$ 09/21 ULM

2031 09/13 at ULM

2032

2033 09/24 vs San Diego State

2034 09/09 vs NC State 09/23 at San Diego State

09/08 at UL-L

Of course we end up with a Thursday-Tuesday back to back with having to travel to Tennessee.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bulldog009

Of course we end up with a Thursday-Tuesday back to back with having to travel to Tennessee.

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That's not horrible, at least we are at home the first game. Same as playing a Thursday game after a Saturday game.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
Liberty at FIU TBD
Jacksonville State at Sam Houston TBD
Middle Tennessee at WKU TBD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
LA Tech at UTEP TBD


WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4
Jacksonville State at Middle Tennessee TBD
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5
FIU at New Mexico State TBD
WKU at LA Tech TBD
Sam Houston at Liberty TBD


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10
LA Tech at Middle Tennessee TBD
Liberty at Jacksonville State TBD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11
UTEP at FIU TBD
Sam Houston at New Mexico State TBD


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17
WKU at Jacksonville State TBD
Middle Tennessee at Liberty TBD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18
FIU at Sam Houston TBD
New Mexico State at UTEP TBD


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24
New Mexico State at LA Tech TBD
Liberty at WKU TBD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25
Jacksonville State at FIU TBD
UTEP at Sam Houston TBD

It's bad enough that we have the month of shame now.
Couldn't they at least have kept the weeknight games restricted to that month? Thankfully the extra one is at least an away game.


Non-conference is as good as it's been for a long time. One G-5 (who we like to play, with some history, in a recruiting area) on the road, one G-5 (who we like to play, with some history, in a recruiting area) at home, probably best option (or close to it) for an FCS home game, and then the money game.

I assume WKU and LU will be the best couple of teams, and we split them home-and-away, so that's decent. You can't really complain about travel (because it almost all sucks) so that's fine - FIU comes to us, we go to El Paso (flipped this year, I wasn't sure they'd take that into account, but they seem to have). Late bye week might come in handy. Shame it didn't save us from a weeknight game even though it fell in October. Staggered trips to UTEP/NMSU - probably for the best.

Be interesting who we miss in '24 and how that rotation goes. My guess is pairs that never miss (rivals or at least "rivals" and ours will be SHSU). But I wonder who we'll miss first in the rotation. Almost no chance we'll make it all the way through a whole 8 team home-and-away rotation with this exact set of teams.

With this schedule anything less than a bowl game is a failure in year two.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bulldog Tom

With this schedule anything less than a bowl game is a failure in year two.

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Winning a game isn't a given until this team gets more than one healthy QB that can walk on his own for spring practice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by inudesu

It's bad enough that we have the month of shame now.
Couldn't they at least have kept the weeknight games restricted to that month? Thankfully the extra one is at least an away game.


Non-conference is as good as it's been for a long time. One G-5 (who we like to play, with some history, in a recruiting area) on the road, one G-5 (who we like to play, with some history, in a recruiting area) at home, probably best option (or close to it) for an FCS home game, and then the money game.

I assume WKU and LU will be the best couple of teams, and we split them home-and-away, so that's decent. You can't really complain about travel (because it almost all sucks) so that's fine - FIU comes to us, we go to El Paso (flipped this year, I wasn't sure they'd take that into account, but they seem to have). Late bye week might come in handy. Shame it didn't save us from a weeknight game even though it fell in October. Staggered trips to UTEP/NMSU - probably for the best.

Be interesting who we miss in '24 and how that rotation goes. My guess is pairs that never miss (rivals or at least "rivals" and ours will be SHSU). But I wonder who we'll miss first in the rotation. Almost no chance we'll make it all the way through a whole 8 team home-and-away rotation with this exact set of teams.

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The mid-October bye week DID save Tech from a mid-week October game. Tech would have had 5 Tuesday-Friday games in a row without that open date. The UTEP game will almost certainly be a CBSSN telecast that is not part of the October TV package. UTSA was at Middle Tennessee as part of a CBSSN doubleheader on that corresponding Friday in 2022.

I like not having a home game on either the weekend before or after Thanksgiving and having the regular season over before finals week ends.

I don't like having three straight short weeks after the Nebraska game and playing 4 games in 18 days in that stretch. An open date was a must after that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FriscoDawg

I don't like having three straight short weeks after the Nebraska game and playing 4 games in 18 days in that stretch. An open date was a must after that.

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Wasn't there a rule that prevented this?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FriscoDawg

The mid-October bye week DID save Tech from a mid-week October game. Tech would have had 5 Tuesday-Friday games in a row without that open date. The UTEP game will almost certainly be a CBSSN telecast that is not part of the October TV package. UTSA was at Middle Tennessee as part of a CBSSN doubleheader on that corresponding Friday in 2022.

I like not having a home game on either the weekend before or after Thanksgiving and having the regular season over before finals week ends.

I don't like having three straight short weeks after the Nebraska game and playing 4 games in 18 days in that stretch. An open date was a must after that.

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1. "It could always be worse" is one way to think about it. If that Friday night game isn't even part of the awful "month of weeknight football shame" that really does suck. At least it's on the road (as was the Friday night game this last season).

2. Wish the bye had saved us from a home weeknight game.

3. We had no leverage. We were selling. . .this group of teams. The last deal had us all over the place and hard to find. I get it. But I hate this weeknight business so much. At best it's a penny-wise, pound-foolish deal. What has the MAC really got back from their MACtion thing?

But what are you gonna do? Stuck with it now.

Tech’s suck ass shame game month is hilarious because that’s exactly what it is when our backsliding conference can’t compete with everyone else for a sliver of pie on Saturday. Yeah we’ll make some money but we’ll probably lose games doing it as a result of player injury and fatigue. Our low numbers of any depth will likely show up big time. This schedule makes Cumbie’s job even harder.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

Wasn't there a rule that prevented this?

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There has never been a C-USA rule written that Judy wouldn't waive if any TV network waves a dollar under her nose.

All 9 C-USA teams have either 4 or 5 non-Friday games on the schedule.

FIU (5)--2 Thursdays, 3 Wednesdays (1 6-day short week, 4 games in 21 days)
Jacksonville State (5)--1 Thursday, 2 Wednesdays, 2 Tuesdays (1 5-day short week, 2 6-day short weeks, 4 games in 20 days)
Liberty (5)--2 Thursdays, 3 Tuesdays (1 5-day short week, 4 games in 20 days)
Louisiana Tech (4)--1 Friday, 1 Thursday, 2 Tuesdays (1 5-day short week, 2 6-day short weeks, 4 games in 18 days and 5 games in 25 days)
Middle Tennessee (4)--1 Thursday, 1 Wednesday, 2 Tuesdays (1 5-day short week, 2 6-day short weeks, 4 games in 18 days and 5 games in 25 days)
New Mexico State (4)--1 Thursday, 2 Wednesdays, 1 Tuesday (2 6-day short weeks, 4 games in 20 days)
Sam Houston (5)--2 Thursdays, 3 Wednesdays (1 5-day short week, 1 6-day short week, 4 games in 19 days and 5 games in 26 days)
UTEP (4)--1 Friday, 3 Wednesdays (1 6-day short week, 4 games in 21 days)
WKU (4)--2 Thursdays, 2 Tuesdays (2 5-day short weeks, 4 games in 20 days)

Looking at Tech's conference schedule, here is the previous opponent and opponent game load for each game.

vs FIU--season opener for both
at UTEP--coming off hosting UNLV on a 6-day short week while Tech comes off playing at Nebraska on a 6-day short week
vs WKU--coming off hosting Middle Tennessee on a 7-day week while Tech comes off playing at UTEP on a 6-day short week
at Middle Tennessee--coming off hosting Jacksonville State on a 6-day short week while Tech comes off hosting WKU on a 5-day short week
vs New Mexico State--coming off playing at UTEP on a 6-day short week while Tech comes off an open date (14 days between games)
at Liberty--coming off playing at WKU on an 11-day week while Tech comes off hosting NMSU on an 11-day week
vs Sam Houston--TBD game on November 4 while Tech comes off playing at Liberty
at Jacksonville State--coming off an open date while Tech comes off hosting Sam Houston

I thought it was an NCAA rule. I'll have to look.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FriscoDawg

Winning a game isn't a given until this team gets more than one healthy QB that can walk on his own for spring practice.

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True, but especially if the defense is going to be the worst defense in the nation again. I can’t believe that guy wasn’t replaced. They must think it was a talent issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FriscoDawg

The mid-October bye week DID save Tech from a mid-week October game. Tech would have had 5 Tuesday-Friday games in a row without that open date. The UTEP game will almost certainly be a CBSSN telecast that is not part of the October TV package. UTSA was at Middle Tennessee as part of a CBSSN doubleheader on that corresponding Friday in 2022.

I like not having a home game on either the weekend before or after Thanksgiving and having the regular season over before finals week ends.

I don't like having three straight short weeks after the Nebraska game and playing 4 games in 18 days in that stretch. An open date was a must after that.

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It looks like 4 of the holdover teams (minus FIU) and NMSU got 4 awful midweek games, which is bad, but everyone else got 5 (which is worse).

That math gets us 20 games.

But with an extra team the next year (even though it ruins round robin play) the mid-week punishments are spread evenly with 4 each for everyone.

So I suppose it could have been worse for us this year. I winder if FIU signed up for that extra weeknight game or got stuck with it.