Texas Tech Football and Basketball News you may have missed this Summer
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Here’s a quick recap of the big stories and articles we covered on SI about the Texas Tech Red Raiders in June and July.
Many people, and not just college sports fans, like to relax, disconnect, and spend time traveling and vacationing in the summer. It is perfectly understandable if Texas Tech fans took a few months off from following their favorite college team. Now that August is here, fans are slowly getting back to following and reading about the latest news and happenings with the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Let's take a look at some of the top stories from this summer.
Texas Tech appears to have added senior forward Jamichael Stillwell (UCF). We had coverage of known non-conference games for the 2026-27 season, including Jackson State, Illinois, New Orleans, Omaha, and the Players Era 16 tournament in Las Vegas, where they will face Louisville in their opening game.
According to reports, Texas Tech has sold out its public season tickets for men's basketball for an eighth straight season. Big 12 Award Nominees Texas Tech’s nominees for the Big 12 Athlete of the Year awards are football star Jacob Rodriguez and softball star Nijaree Canady.
The Brendan Sorsby story, the quarterback competition, and the legal and off-the-field issues. Texas Tech made national headlines after a major betting scandal involving quarterback Brendan Sorsby. An NCAA appeal over Sorsby’s eligibility was pushed back until February 2027 (after the College Football Playoff) in early June.
Sorsby was hoping to get a chance to play in the NFL via a supplemental draft, but in late June the NFL announced there would be no supplemental draft in 2026, making him ineligible for the NFL this season. When the off-the-field situation settled, articles named Will Hammond as the favorite to step in as Texas Tech’s starting quarterback for Week 1, in which he was recently named the starter for their season opener.
An article quoted top booster Cody Campbell saying Big 12 athletic departments should adopt Texas Tech’s fundraising model and talked about why Texas Tech might want to leave the Big 12. Multiple articles were written about where Texas Tech stands nationally in academic rankings and acceptance rates in comparison to other Texas and Big 12 schools.
Former Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson gained recognition at the NBA Combine before becoming just the fourth first-round NBA Draft pick in Texas Tech history. Texas Tech renewed its rivalry with Texas on the softball field as both teams met in the WCWS championship series. After their run at the WCWS, the softball program added two new assistant coaches to its technical staff in late July.
Texas Tech just pulled off a major recruiting win, landing a top 2027 prospect that was thought to be destined to join his two older brothers at Michigan State. Defensive lineman Khyren Haywood (Denton Guyer) and defensive lineman Jalen Brewster pledged their commitments to Texas Tech from the 2027 class. Kaston Lewis, a four-star safety, pledged to the Red Raiders, boosting the 2027 class into the top-20 rankings nationally by the middle of June.
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Ryan Kay is a journalist who graduated from Michigan State in 2003 and is passionate about covering college sports and enjoys writing features and articles covering various collegiate teams. He has worked as an editor at Go Joe Bruin and has been a contributor for Longhorns Wire and Busting Brackets. He is a contributor for Texas Tech On SI.