Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- By launching an aggressive public challenge, Texas Tech masterfully seized control of the offseason narrative and won a major promotional victory over Texas.
- The Red Raiders flipped the script by offering to buy out both teams' season openers for a high-stakes, neutral-site showdown at AT&T Stadium.
- This strategy forces the Longhorns into a tight corner where they must either accept a risky matchup or decline and look like they are actively ducking a rival.
It sure looks like the Texas Tech Red Raiders are pretty serious about facing off against Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns. After Sarkisian may have taken a shot at the Red Raiders (he didn’t name anyone, but it really feels like he took a shot at Texas Tech) for the quality of their schedule in 2026, he caught the attention of everyone out in West Texas.
And that includes one Cody Campbell (the oil billionaire who played for the Red Raiders and has worked to elevate Texas Tech as a whole), one Joey McGuire (the head coach of the Texas Tech football team), and pretty much everyone else in Lubbock.
Campbell, who also happens to be the chairman of the Texas Tech board of regents, has made it clear that the Red Raiders will help foot the bill to make this game happen.
That includes paying for Texas Tech to get out of its season opening game with the Abilene Christian Wildcats (who aren’t exactly the most imposing program ever). But interestingly enough, instead of just paying ACU, Texas Tech is apparently willing to cover the bill for the Longhorns’ season opener with the Texas State Bobcats.
To help make it even more interesting for this game to happen, Campbell has apparently inquired about the use of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Both the Red Raiders and the Longhorns would lose a home game in the process, but we’d get to see if Texas can actually back up what its head coach decided to say to the whole world about the quality of his team.
McGuire says Tech Regents chairman Cody Campbell has reached out to Stephen Jones about playing in AT&T Stadium. McGuire said he's talked to ACU coach Keith Patterson and Texas State coach GJ Kinne about playing each other in such an arrangement.
— Don Williams (@AJ_DonWilliams) May 28, 2026
Cody Campbell and Texas Tech are doing everything possible to get the Red Raiders on the field with Steve Sarkisian
There’s a lot of history to this one (and not much of it has been all that great for the Red Raiders, to be completely honest). The Red Raiders and Longhorns have played each other 72 times and Texas Tech has won a grand total of 18 of those matchups. UT won the most recent meeting between the two back in 2023 by a score of 57-7.
But apparently, Texas Tech isn’t scared of making this one happen.
@TexasFootball has a $48MM roster, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re scared, just say you’re scared!
— Cody Campbell (@CodyC64) May 28, 2026
And that’s with all of the weird quarterback eligibility situation that Texas Tech finds itself in. With Brendan Sorsby ruled ineligible to play due to an investigation into sports gambling, the Red Raiders don’t exactly have a starting quarterback ready to go for this sort of matchup. Unless Will Hammond’s ACL has magically healed, that is.
Will Texas take the Red Raiders up on this very expensive offer to help make Texas State and ACU richer?
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