Red Raider Review

Texas Tech's Fans Reactions to a New Policy are not Positive

A football home game tradition since the 1990s will no longer be encouraged or permitted moving forward, according to athletic director Kirby Hocutt, and the fans are not thrilled about this decision.
Ryan Kay|
Texas Tech fans
Texas Tech fans | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Texas Tech fans are not thrilled with the banning of an opening kickoff tradition of throwing tortillas on the field of Red Raider home football games.

First, Texas Tech fans have had this tradition for years and though it has caused some controversy over the years, it was not seen as public enemy number one by college football fans.

The weekly presser after their loss to Arizona State, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt made an announcement about the policy change.

This tradition has been under the microscope in the off-season as the other Big 12 athletic directors voted to put some restrictions on the nearly 30-year plus tradition. The announcement by Hocutt is not a huge surprise, given what has been allegedly communicated to him and the Texas Tech athletic department by the Big 12 conference.

The Big 12 Conference enacted a policy to penalize teams for throwing objects onto the playing enclosure (which includes the field and bench areas) during the offseason. The rule was implemented after an AD's vote in August, as reported by Yahoo's sports writer Ross Dellenger.

Originally, the regulation stipulated that a warning would be issued for the first offense and that subsequent offenses would result in a 15-yard penalty. The only person to vote against this regulation was Hocutt, who at first favored the long-standing tradition until his announcement this week.

For throwing things into the field (tortillas), the Red Raiders received two 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalties in their last home game. Additionally, the university was hit with an initial fine, which in one case was said to be $25,000. The Kansas head coach, Lance Leipold, had some strong words after the game about the tortillas being thrown on the field.

The punishment was then made more severe by the Big 12. According to the updated regulation, any further infractions would result in a 15-yard penalty and a $100,000 fine for the university following the initial warning via public address announcement. However, the tortilla controversy seemed to have cooled off after Kansas was also fined for providing false and inaccurate information about one particular incident during the game.

Fast forward to after the Arizona State game, Texas Tech seems serious about implementing the banning of throwing tortillas on the field, but Red Raider fans seem less than pleased by this new policy that will be enforced starting with their game against Oklahoma State.

Other fans, groups, and organizations are sadden by the toritilla ban.

This can end up being a rallying cry and maybe just maybe, motivate the fans and especially the student body at Texas Tech to cheer on the Red Raiders with even more passion and raise the volume at home games this season.

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Ryan Kay
RYAN KAY

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.

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