National Rankings and Bowl Projections for Texas Tech Football

The Texas Tech Red Raiders are 5–0 (2–0 Big 12) heading into their bye week. Texas Tech opened the season ranked No. 12 in the USA Today Coaches Poll—its highest preseason ranking in school history—and has remained a top-10 team as one of the Big 12’s unbeaten teams, along with BYU and Utah.

As an undefeated Power Four team in the top 15, projections range from upper-tier Big 12 traditional bowl tie-ins to tradition New Year's Six bowl games depending on the source. They are not, however, projected to make the College Football Playoffs, according to all highly publicized college football publications.

Here is a closer look at where national publications have Texas Tech projected to play in which bowl game.

ESPN does not currently project the Red Raiders to make the College Football Playoffs this season, according to its week six bowl projections. Both ESPN bowl projection analysts have Texas Tech playing in the Valero Alamo Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Kyle Bonagura has Texas Tech playing Oregon in a rematch of last season's CFP game between the two teams. Mark Schlabach has the Red Raiders playing UCLA.

CBS Sports has Texas Tech projected to play Tennessee in the Kinder's Texas Bowl on New Year's Eve.

SI has Texas Tech playing USC in the Valero Alamo Bowl on December 29th. USA Today also has the exact same bowl prediction for the Red Raiders as well as Athlon Sports. College Football News (CFN) has Texas Tech playing in the Alamo Bowl but against UCLA.

Now, let's look at Texas Tech's national ranking among well-known publications.

The Red Raiders are ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll heading into Week 6 play.

Texas Tech is ranked higher at No. 9 in the US LBM Coaches Poll.

The Red Raiders are ranked No. 11 in the ESPN SP+ rankings heading into week 6 of the 2026 college football season.

Athlon Sports also has Texas Tech ranked No. 11 in their ranking of all 138 college football teams after Week 5.

CBS Sports has Texas Tech ranked one spot lower at No. 12.

The NY Times/The Athletic has the Red Raiders ranked No. 12 in their Re-Ranking of 138 College Football Teams After Week 5.

The reasons for Texas Tech not being ranked a top 10 team nationally or a team projected to make the College Football Playoffs are due to them struggling to pull away early and win convincingly against teams like Oregon State and Houston. On paper, they have won four of their five games by double digits, but their offense has often struggled in the first half of games, and the defense is below last season's elite level, even though the defense has played outstanding in their last two games.

The next four games are important. At minimum, they need to win all four games, even if they are single-digit wins. They would be 9-0, projected to be in the CFP, and ranked in the top 10 without any doubt. However, if they were to win these next four games convincingly, college football fans, media personalities, and journalists would consider them contenders to make a run in the CFP.

Here is a closer look at where national publications have Texas Tech projected to play in which bowl game.

Now, let's look at Texas Tech's national ranking among well-known publications.

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