RUSTON, La. - Conference USA officials announced the league's 2017 football schedule Thursday, which features a program record seven home games for Louisiana Tech next season and officially completes the 12-game slate for the Bulldogs.

The 14-team alignment for the 2017 season will feature each team playing eight conference games, along with four non-league contests. The alignment will feature seven teams in the East Division and seven teams in the West Division.

Louisiana Tech begins the season with back-to-back home games against in-state foe Northwestern State on Sept. 2 followed by the Bulldogs hosting Mississippi State out of the SEC on Sept. 9 at Joe Aillet Stadium.

For the fourth straight season, Louisiana Tech will open Conference USA play on the road as the Bulldogs will travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Sept. 16 to take on East Division foe WKU in the third week of the season. LA Tech and WKU faced off twice in 2016, once in the regular season in a game the Bulldogs won, 55-52, in Ruston. With both teams winning their respective divisions last year, the Bulldogs and Hilltoppers faced off once again in the 2016 Conference USA Championship Game when WKU defeated LA Tech, 58-44, in Bowling Green to claim the league title.

LA Tech will continue road play the next week with a matchup against another SEC opponent in South Carolina on Sept. 23 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. The game between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks will mark the sixth meeting all-time between the two teams with the last occurring in 1995.

On Sept. 30, the Bulldogs are scheduled to return home to host South Alabama in the final non-conference game of the 2017 season as the Jaguars will travel to Ruston for the first meeting between the two programs on the gridiron.

The next week, Louisiana Tech will travel to Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, to face UAB in its first season back on the field since being discontinued in 2014 and then reinstated shortly after in the summer of 2015. This will mark the Blazers first season of football since the 2014 campaign when UAB posted a 6-6 overall record and 4-4 mark in Conference USA games.

Following a bye week that splits the season in half, the Bulldogs will return to the field on Oct. 21 to host Southern Miss in the fourth home game on the schedule. The game against the Golden Eagles will mark the first time since 2014 that the two teams have not met in the final game of the regular season.

Louisiana Tech will travel to Rice on Oct. 28 before opening the month of November with two straight home conference games against North Texas (Nov. 4) and Florida Atlantic (Nov. 11). LA Tech and North Texas have faced each other every season since the Bulldogs joined Conference USA in 2013 with Tech having won three straight over the Mean Green, including a 45-24 victory this past season in Denton. The meeting between LA Tech and Florida Atlantic will be the first between the two programs.

The Bulldogs will travel to El Paso, Texas, on Nov. 18 to take on UTEP in the team's final road trip of the regular season before returning home for the season finale versus UTSA at Joe Aillet Stadium on Nov. 25.

In league play, each school will play every team in its division once for six games, while playing two crossover opponents from the opposite division. After having stand-alone schedules for the past four seasons due to realignment, the 2017 season marks the return to a multi-year schedule rotation that will be in place for the next several seasons. Due to the move from 13 teams to 14 teams for 2017, a couple of teams will play division opponents at the same location as 2016, a situation that was unavoidable with the West Division moving from six teams to seven.

Louisiana Tech fans can now purchase or renew their season tickets for the upcoming 2017 football season with the Bulldogs coming off three consecutive nine-win seasons, three straight bowl victories for the first time in school history and one of the most impressive home slates on the horizon next fall.

Fans can purchase season tickets online at www.LATechSports.com/tickets or by calling the LA Tech Ticket Office at 318-257-3631. The renewal deadline is set for June 1, while new season ticket buyers can pick their seats on the priority seating deadline (April 3). Fans will also have the opportunity to save up to $84 by becoming a season ticket holder rather than purchasing single-game tickets next season.

All new and renewed season ticket buyers will be invited to an exclusive tour of the new press box at Joe Aillet Stadium next fall at a date to be determined during the 2017 season. The press box is expected to reach completion by the start of the 2017 football season.

It is important to note that all games are subject to date changes and some dates are expected to move in the coming weeks in order to accommodate national television. A schedule of televised games will be released at a later date.

Conference USA's 13th annual Championship Game, pitting the champions of the East and West Divisions, is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 2.

For complete coverage of Bulldog Football, please follow Louisiana Tech on social media at @LATechFB (Twitter), /LATechFootball (Facebook) and @LATechFB (Instagram) or visit the official home of Louisiana Tech Athletics at LATechSports.com.

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2017 LOUISIANA TECH FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 2 NORTHWESTERN STATE

Sept. 9 MISSISSIPPI STATE

Sept. 16 at WKU*

Sept. 23 at South Carolina

Sept. 30 SOUTH ALABAMA

Oct. 7 at UAB*

Oct. 14 BYE

Oct. 21 SOUTHERN MISS*

Oct. 28 at Rice*

Nov. 4 NORTH TEXAS*

Nov. 11 FLORIDA ATLANTIC*

Nov. 18 at UTEP*

Nov. 25 UTSA*