Texas Tech has forever been a middle-of-the-pack football school (or lower). It has not won the Big 12 football championship in the last 75 years.
Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks (28) during a game against ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ on Oct. 5, 2024, in Tucson.
But that changed this summer when the school was ranked No. 1 nationally by ESPN and in transfer portal recruiting. Even Tech's communications department bought it; in a June press release it wrote "Texas Tech has been the talk of college football since the transfer portal opened in December."
Tech's 26-transfer class includes talent from USC, Purdue, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Mississippi State. The school's general manager for football, James Blanchard, told reporters, "Our goal is to dominate the Big 12 every year."
The Red Raiders opened the $242 million Womble Football Center this summer, one of the best of its kind in college football. A billionaire alumnus, Cody Campbell, who made his fortune in the oil and gas business, told reporters, "I'm all in" when it comes to buying star athletes.
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Said Blanchard: "We're going to poach some guys. If somebody is underpaying an elite guy, a four-star recruit getting $100,000 or $200,000, we're going to give him $300,000 or $400,000 a year and steal him."
Such is college athletics, 2025, like it or not.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at GHansenAZStar@gmail.com. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711
Greg Hansen
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ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ football to face another set of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ — Weber State — for the first time | Greg Hansen
