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This war of words between Texas and Texas Tech won't lead to a real battle

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook05/29/26josephcook89

There seems to be a misunderstanding.

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Here’s what Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said a week ago at the Touchdown Club of Houston: “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.”

Texas Tech took that as a shot across their bow. The feeling seems to be that Sarkisian boasted Texas could beat Texas Tech with the Longhorns twos and threes. But that would be a miscomprehension of how football scheduling works. Making the easy assumption that Sarkisian was talking about the Red Raiders and not Rice, it’s worth noting Texas Tech isn’t on Texas Tech’s schedule.

Sarkisian claimed the Longhorns’ second team would waltz through the Big 12 just like Texas Tech did last year (and like Texas did in 2023) because the Red Raiders face such a weak schedule. Without the Longhorns, the strongest opponent on Texas Tech’s schedule is weaker than the average opponent on Texas’ schedule that features nine SEC games and a non-conference game versus Ohio State.

There’s no doubt Sarkisian, who was speaking to a room full of Texas fans in Houston, was playing to his base. He was cognizant the media was there, but he wasn’t in ‘press conference’ mode. He was in ‘speaking to his fans’ mode.

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire was also playing to his base, albeit at Big 12 Spring Meetings, when he upped the ante and said his program would love to welcome the Longhorns to Lubbock or play a neutral site game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Texas Tech board of regents chairman and super-booster Cody Campbell even said TTU offered to buy out the game contracts for the respective week one opponents for Texas and Texas Tech, Texas State and Abilene Christian, to make that happen.

Texas’ last trip to Lubbock ended on a sour note, with the Longhorns losing in overtime 37-34 in 2022. Red Raider fans rushed the field and many Texas fans in attendance do not look back fondly both at on and off-field events.

The Longhorns, in spite of Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark’s hopes and dreams, crushed TTU in Austin 57-7 the following year to advance to the Big 12 Championship.

The chances of Texas going and playing this game are slim to none, and that may be exaggerating the odds. Texas isn’t likely to give this the time of day, just as it hasn’t given the idea of playing in Lubbock the time of day since 2022. That stands despite Campbell’s X efforts with Sarkisian and Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte.

Practically, after playing six home games in 2025, the Longhorns are not going to sacrifice a home date in 2026 in order to respond to a sharp barb emanating from Lubbock and play only 12 games in DKR across two years. Texas Tech should understand that, it has made sure there have been seven home games in Lubbock in each of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

ESPN is not giving up a game it has the rights to, and TV partners aren’t going to play this game less than 100 days from kickoff. That Abilene Christian game TTU currently has on the schedule for week one belongs to FS1, and taking away what both ESPN and Fox thinks is theirs is as easy as moving Lubbock closer to Fort Worth.

Texas State won’t be keen on the idea. The newly-minted Pac-12 team already has one FCS team on its schedule in Incarnate Word. If the swap happens and the Bobcats take on ACU instead, then TXST would have a much smaller margin for error as it pertains to making a bowl since only one FCS win can be applied toward bowl eligibility. GJ Kinne isn’t going to sacrifice leeway on purpose.

Abilene Christian doesn’t seem interested either. It released a statement last night saying, “we are planning on playing Texas Tech as scheduled on Sept. 5 in Lubbock. We look forward to playing the Red Raiders barring any changes.” The last time ACU played Texas Tech, the Red Raiders had to stave off a game-winning two-point attempt in overtime to win 52-51.

And maybe most importantly, Texas isn’t going to add a road trip in week one (or week zero) to put an 11th Power Conference game on its schedule. No SEC team plays more than 10 Power Conference games.

Ohio State is already heading to town in week two. What’s then the purpose for Texas to play Texas Tech?

Red Raider fans may point to this and say “well, beat us with your twos and threes then.” That’s not what Sarkisian said his team could do. He said Texas’ twos and threes could go through Texas Tech’s schedule undefeated in the same way the Red Raiders are favored to do in 2026.

The Big 12 is egging this on in its social media channels, which isn’t a first. After Arizona State beat Texas in game one of the Austin softball super regional, the official Big 12 account posted this before Texas would prevail in games two and three and advance to the Women’s College World Series.

Even Big 12 administrators are on Tech’s side.

Sarkisian threw his punch, and McGuire and TTU offered a decent counter to try to draw the Longhorns in for a combo.

Too many, including Texas, sniffed out. It won’t land all the way from West Texas. The war of words made talkin’ season a little more entertaining, but they won’t likely have any real effect on the 2026 schedule for the Longhorns and the Red Raiders.

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