Texas Tech's Pointless PR Crusade Against Texas Continues In Cringeworthy ESPN Stunt

The Texas Tech Red Raiders just can't get the Texas Longhorns out of their mind. But then again, they have never been able to.

Earlier this week, Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire and athletic director Kirby Hocutt made some inflammatory comments directed at Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns, in an attempt to goad their former Big 12 Rival into scheduling a Week 1 matchup.

This was all in response to Sarkisian's presumed dig at the Red Raiders' easy schedule, and that he could navigate it to win the Big 12 with his backups.

“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 at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin.

Not once, by the way, did Sarkisian ever mention Texas Tech by name, or that Texas could beat it with its backups, as many are claiming.

Regardless, the Red Raiders' biggest supporter, billionaire Cody Campbell, has taken the PR stunt a step further in a cringeworthy interview on ESPN.

Campbell calls out Texas... again

Texas Tech University System Board of Regents chairman Cody Campbell attends the Big 12 Championship football game | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In the WWE wrestling-style interview, Campbell attempts to dig at the Longhorns for not entertaining the feeble stunt by ostensibly calling them 'castrated'.

"Bevo, the Longhorns' mascot, is a steer. It’s become very clear that there are quite a few steers down in Austin,” Campbell said on The Pat McAfee Show. “There aren’t very many bulls. When Sark opened his mouth and he picked a fight with a bunch of West Texas boys, he should have known that he better get ready to pack a lunch. Because we’re ready to strap it on, spot the ball, and we’re ready to go. September 3rd or September 5th. You name the place and we’ll be there. We’ll go at it."

Truthfully, it's a brilliant move by Texas Tech in a sense. They know that Texas isn't going to bite. They know that the game is never going to happen. They also know that by puffing their metaphorical chests out, they can attempt to come across as the good guys in the situation against the 'evil blue blood Longhorns'.

And at this point, there is nothing that Texas can say or do that is going to shift the narrative back in its direction in the eyes of the masses.

One of the many problems, however, is that the majority of the people who are pushing for the Longhorns to buy out Texas State and schedule the Red Raiders simply don't understand the basic economics of college football.

In order for Texas to make something like that work, not only would Texas State have to be bought out, but they would have to reimburse over 100,000 fans who purchased tickets to the game, or who hold season tickets for all 7 Longhorns home games.

They would also have to take the loss of an average $10-12 million in revenue generated by Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on game day. Not to mention all of the money lost around the city of Austin with the game not taking place.

All of that, by the way, to simply satiate the ego of a former rival team that holds one of the weakest schedules in the Power 4 conferences by design. Not to mention their crippling obsession with a team that holds a 55-18 all-time record against them.

People like Campbell, McGuire, and Hocutt fully understand that. They are simply choosing to placate the masses who don't take those factors into account in order to boost the approval rating among the fanbase.

Then again, Campbell might not understand everything.

"Why wouldn't we play?"

Businessman Cody Campbell is seen along the sidelines during warmups of a game between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

“Why wouldn’t we play?" Campbell continued in the interview. "We’ve been talking about playing for five years; they refuse to play us because, again, I think they’re more steers than they are bulls down in Austin.”

Let's start by answering the first question. Why not?

Well, we have already answered the economic aspects of why the matchup can't happen. There is also the logistical nightmare of rescheduling a game less than 100 days out from the start of the regular season.

But from a broader context, what would Texas have to gain from a matchup like this? The answer is nothing.

Texas already plays the toughest scheduling in college football. It hosts a top-10 Ohio State team in Week 2, hosts a likely top-10 Ole Miss team in Austin, and has to travel to Dallas to take on Oklahoma, all while making road trips to Tennessee in Knoxville, LSU in Baton Rouge, and Texas A&M in College Station.

Now Texas Tech, who facest one of the easiest schedules in the country, wants the Longhorns to drop a home game, and come to Lubbock a week before they're supposed to take on the Buckeyes?

That would be absurd and illogical.

Now to the second point Campbell made: Texas is not refusing to play anyone.

The Longhorns and Red Raiders spoke back in 2021 in regards to continuing the rivalry for a 20-25 year period, after the Longhorns SEC exit.

That hasn't come to fruition yet. Not because Texas is afraid, but because it already had prior commitments.

The Longhorns have had the matchups against Ohio State on their schedule since 2020, and the tilts against Michigan on the books since 2014. They have also had Notre Dame scheduled since 2024.

It should also be noted that Texas and Texas Tech also played in 2023, with the Longhorns winning that game by 50 points in Austin. The Horns are also 55-18 all-time and 19-5 since the turn of the century against their 'rival'.

They are not afraid of anything.

Rather, the real reason Texas hasn't scheduled Texas Tech, is because they don't need to.

The Red Raiders need Texas a lot more than Texas needs them

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day and Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian shake hands following a press conference | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In its non-conference matchups over the last few years, Texas has scheduled defending national champions or national runners-up in almost every instance.

In 2019, the Longhorns played arguably the best team in the history of the sport in the Joe Burrow-led LSU Tigers. They were scheduled to face them again in 2020, but the game was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022 and 2023, they played the Alabama Crimson Tide, who were coming off a national championship in 2020 and a national title loss to Georgia in 2021.

In 2024, as we mentioned, Texas played defending national champion Michigan in Ann Arbor, which is also scheduled to come to Austin in 2027. In 2025, Texas took on the defending national champion, Ohio State, which is also coming to Austin in 2026.

As we also mentioned, the Horns are scheduled to face Notre Dame, which played for a national title in 2024, in the 2027 and 2028 seasons.

In fact, the lone exception during that run was in 2021, when they had a non-conference matchup against Arkansas, an SEC team.

Meanwhile, the Red Raiders have not faced a ranked team in non-conference play since 2023, when they lost to the Oregon Ducks. They also faced NC State and Houston in 2022. They went 1-2 in those games.

Before that, you'd have to go back to 2009 to find the last non-conference, non-bowl matchup for Texas Tech, when they faced the Houston Cougars in Houston.

They lost that game as well.

In other words, Texas doesn't need Texas Tech in the slightest. They are just fine scheduling Power 4 blue bloods in the non-conference, and are primed to compete for a national title as a result.

The Red Raiders, who could have easily added a legitimate Power 4 opponent at any point, should they have desired, desperately need Texas.

Not only to satiate their egos, but also to help their program stay relevant after an embarrassing College Football Playoff run in which they became the only team in the history of the event to get shut out.

All because Steve Sarkisian, apparently, hurt their feelings.

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