Texas Tech's 'offer' to play Longhorns a desperate PR stunt

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In one of the most absurd, desperate PR stunts in recent college football history, Texas Tech “announced” they want to play the Texas Longhorns in Week 1 and they will buy out anyone that stands in their way. Of course, the Red Raiders only want the game on their terms.

After Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian alluded to weak schedules in the Big 12, the Tech brass decided to cook up a response.

“There’s a team in our state that plays in another conference that has a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and our threes, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year,” Sarkisian said.

Sark didn’t mention Texas Tech by name, but 1 + 1 = 2. Sark’s intention was to plant a seed in the minds of the college football committee that some conferences have harder schedules than others. Schedule inequality was a huge topic of discussion at this week’s SEC meetings in Florida.

Tech coach Joey McGuire claims to have spoken to Texas’ opening weekend opponent, Texas State, and the Red Raiders Week 1 opponent, Abilene Christian to offer a buyout. Assumably, Texas State and Abilene Christian can play each other. Who knows.

“I’ve actually talked to Keith Patterson, and I’ve talked to G.J. Kinne,” McGuire said Thursday at the Big 12 spring meetings, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. “And they’re willing to take our games, and Abilene Christian will go to Texas State. We’ll buy our contract out with Abilene Christian. I’m sure, because Texas has got a lot of money, they can buy their contract out (with Texas State). I do know there’s a lot of Red Raiders that will help them buy that contract out if they don’t want to, and they can come to Lubbock week one, and we can figure out if their twos and threes can win this conference.”

The biggest issue is – is this a valid, workable or reasonable offer? The answer is a resounding no. Of course not.

There’s a reason college football schedules are made YEARS in advance. It is a huge expense to change a schedule around, especially less than 100 days before kickoff. There is travel and hotels and logistics for the team, the staff, the band, the administration. You get the idea.

But of course, Texas Tech knows this.

McGuire and new Tech super booster Cody Campbell suggested the game be played either in Lubbock or Arlington. In other words, for Texas to accept this “offer” it will have to spend money on the switch AND forego a home game and the 100,000 tickets already sold.

Tech also originally suggested UT foot the bill for the buyout. But then Tech super booster Cody Campbell magnanimously said he’d pay for it.

Obviously, UT wouldn’t allow another program to pay a theoretical buy out.

But of course, Texas Tech knows this.

Texas already has, what many believe, the toughest schedule in the nation. Why on earth would UT add to it? Sark wasn’t saying he could be Tech with his “twos and threes.” He saying he could beat Tech’s schedule with backups. Sark is saying the Big 12 overall is weaker than the SEC. Which it is. Thus Tech’s schedule is weaker. The Red Raiders toughest non-conference opponent is Oregon State.

But of course, Texas Tech knows this.

Texas Tech had very little success on a conference level until Texas and Oklahoma left the Big 12. Texas Tech was third banana at best. But probably behind Oklahoma State and maybe Kansas State.

Texas Tech was the biggest loser in many ways (along with Oklahoma State) when UT and Oklahoma moved to the SEC. Tech lost its most prestigious annual opponent and its biggest rival. The Texas game was one of Tech’s only sellouts. It was especially true after A&M left for the SEC 12 years earlier than UT and OU.

The mid-tier “rival” is exactly the type of conference foe Texas wanted to get away from when it left the Big 12 for the SEC. The yearly opponent that provides zero benefit, win or lose.

It never benefitted Texas when it beat Tech. On the rare occasions the Red Raiders won, it was celebrated in Lubbock like a national title. UT leads the series an amazing 55–18, one of the most lopsided “rivalries” of all time.

But of course, Texas Tech knows this.

Tech has ALWAYS felt like it is behind Texas and Texas A&M. If the Aggies are the Longhorns “little brother,” then Tech is a “little cousin” that the family hates hanging out with. And that’s not just in football.

Tech is the backup safety school for students that can’t get into UT Austin or A&M College Station. Both have some of the most rigorous entrance requirements of any public school in the nation.

It has created a fan base with a severe inferiority complex.

Now, the Red Raiders have new money in the form of billionaire Cody Campbell. Campbell is the one driving the bus now in Lubbock. Ostensively, the university works for him. He’s the one on social media calling Sark “scared” like some third grader on the playground.

It is the cheapest ploy to call someone with hundreds more skins on the wall, who already (voluntarily) has Ohio State on the schedule “scared.”

Don’t be fooled. This is not a real attempt to play Texas. This is a way to get a program that hasn’t ever been on the national radar some cheap attention at Texas’ expense. It was never about actually trying to play Texas in Week 1.

But of course, Texas Tech knows this.

This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Texas Tech PR stunt ‘offer’ to play Longhorns seems desperate

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