In January 2017, Lawrence Tech announced that it would resume intercollegiate football competition, after a hiatus of more than 70 years dating back to just after World War II. The university has admitted two recruiting classes of about 90 student-athletes for a team that competed as an independent squad in the fall of 2018, and which will begin playing a full varsity schedule in the Mid-States Football Association of the NAIA in the fall of 2019. LTU hired Jeff Duvendeck, former head coach at Culver-Stockton (Mo.)