Texas Tech responds to Texas coach swipe with offer to pay to play

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — It was pretty clear that Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was taking a swipe at Texas Tech's upcoming football schedule, even without specifically naming his team's former conference rival.

So the Red Raiders, the reigning Big 12 champion and a playoff team last season, are more than willing to open a spot on that schedule to play the Longhorns as soon as possible. They would even pay to make it happen.

“If they want to play Week 1, then we’re ready,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said Thursday at the Big 12 spring meetings. “We would love to play the University of Texas.”

McGuire's response came a week after Sarkisian spoke to a group of Longhorns supporters in Houston, and was asked about how the College Football Playoff selection committee should take into account strength of schedule.

“There’s a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue, if I played with our 2s and 3s, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year," Sarkisian answered.

Texas Tech is set to open this season at home against Abilene Christian on Sept. 5, the same day that Texas hosts Texas State.

While almost certainly unlikely to happen, McGuire mentioned that both Texas Tech and Texas could buy out the contracts of those opening games, and that ACU and Texas State could potentially meet as replacement opponents for each other.

Soon after that, Red Raiders billionaire booster Cody Campbell tagged Sarkisian and Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte in a social media post saying that he was "Upping the ante,'' and that Texas Tech would pay the buyout for both the ACU and Texas State games.

McGuire said if the Longhorns don't want to travel to Lubbock that maybe they could play at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and where the Big 12 championship game is played each season.

Texas Tech's other non-conference games this year are against Oregon State and Sam Houston. The Red Raiders don't play BYU or Utah in Big 12 play after beating the Cougars twice last season.

The Longhorns and Red Raiders were in the Southwest Conference and Big 12 together. Texas holds a 55-18 lead in the series that dates back to 1928.

Texas won the last meeting 57-7 at home in 2023, the Longhorns' last season before moving to the SEC, after Texas Tech beat them in overtime the previous year.

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football