If Texas Tech thinks the Big 12 has it in for the Red Raiders, then maybe the cleanest answer is the simplest one: walk away.
That’s the blunt takeaway from the latest round of conference tension, and it only got louder during Big 12 Media Days this week. Texas Tech’s place in the league has started to feel strained, and the frustration around the program has spilled far beyond one isolated issue.
The flashpoint was the Brendan Sorsby situation. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and the conference made it clear they took offense to Texas Tech initially thinking it could move forward with Sorsby, who admitted to illegally wagering on college football games and also admitted himself into a gambling rehab clinic.
Texas Tech technically did not break a rule, but the direction it was headed was obvious. If the punishment had run its course, the program would have played him.
The conference’s response shut that down, and Sorsby will not play competitive football for anyone this season.
That’s where the damage starts to matter. The issue is not just what happened, but how Texas Tech is being perceived.
The program is being viewed as if the rules don’t apply to it, as if its access to more oil and gas money than any superstar football or basketball player would ever want gives it the power to call the shots. Fair or not, that’s the reputation hanging over the Red Raiders right now.
And that’s why the suggestion lands so hard: if Texas Tech can’t get along with the rest of the Big 12, maybe a conference divorce is the answer. Legal hurdles aside, the Big 12 could eventually move on and replace Texas Tech with Tulane or Memphis. Preferably Tulane, with New Orleans offered up as the more appealing road trip than a weekend in West Texas.
The point is not subtle. Texas Tech has become a program people are tired of hearing about for the wrong reasons.
The “woe is me” act has worn thin. If the Red Raiders believe the college football world has ganged up on them, that feeling is part of the problem now, not the solution.
So if the fallout from the Sorsby episode is going to follow Texas Tech everywhere this season, the argument goes, maybe it’s time to split and let somebody else take the baggage.
In Other News...
Iowa State Just Got Hit With A Brutal Big 12 Prediction
Iowa State heads into a season of major transition, with Jimmy Rogers taking over after Matt Campbells departure for Penn State and a roster that looks almost entirely rebuilt. In that kind of reset, preseason projections tend to lean on reputation and history as much as talent, and the Cyclones are already being treated like a team that has to prove it belongs in the conversation all over again.
One national outlook from USA Today did not leave much room for optimism, slotting Iowa State at the bottom of the Big 12 race in a 16-team league. Still, Rogers has spent enough time around low expectations to know they are not the same thing as a ceiling, and his track record suggests the Cyclones may be better equipped to outplay that kind of forecast than the prediction implies. [Read more 🡒]
Jimmy Rogers Made A Stunning Pick For Iowa States Best Player
Big 12 Media Day offered the first real glimpse of how Jimmy Rogers plans to frame Iowa States season, and the message was clear enough: this is a team in the middle of a reset. With a coaching change and plenty of roster turnover, the Cyclones are being viewed externally as a rebuilding group, but Rogers spent part of his time making the case that there is still a foundation worth talking about, especially on special teams.
One of the more notable parts of that conversation was his praise for kicker Kyle Konrardy, whom Rogers pointed to as a major strength on the roster. In a year when Iowa State may need every edge it can find, that kind of confidence in the kicking game matters, because special teams can swing field position, scoring range and close games while the rest of the lineup takes shape. [Read more 🡒]