Ragin' Cajuns

Lafayette sits low, below sea level, and the football team named for the city's Cajun heritage plays its home games in a stadium locals call "The Swamp". The University of Louisiana at Lafayette fielded a team from 1901, but for decades it went by Bulldogs — a name that put it in direct conflict with Louisiana Tech. Head coach Russ Faulkinberry settled the problem in 1963 by renaming the program Raging Cajuns, shortened four years later to Ragin' Cajuns and made official across all sports in 1974.

The program has worn several institutional names along the way, following the university's own shifts from Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1999, but the football identity settled well before the university's did.

Faulkinberry remains the winningest coach in the program's history, and Billy Napier 's run between 2018 and 2021 produced two Sun Belt Conference titles, part of a stretch of championships in 2005, 2013, 2020 and 2021.

Cajun Field itself has shrunk rather than grown: renovations finished for the 2025 season cut capacity from 41,426 to 30,392. The Ragin' Cajuns now play as part of the Sun Belt Conference's West Division, with the Louisiana Tech rivalry set to resume in 2026.