Texas Tech is showing up in the national conversation as a serious Big 12 threat, and in a lot of preseason rankings, the Red Raiders are landing right near the top of the sport.
ESPN’s college football power index puts Texas Tech at No. 10, ahead of teams like Texas A&M, USC, and Oklahoma. Even so, ESPN’s preseason Top 25 has the Red Raiders one spot lower at No.
- CBS Sports is even higher on them, slotting Texas Tech at No. 9 nationally before the season begins.
The New York Times/The Athletic also has Texas Tech at No. 10. That ranking comes from Sam Khan Jr. and Austin Mock, who each built their own top 25 lists - one as an evaluation and informational ranking, the other as a statistical projection model - before combining them into a preseason poll that placed the Red Raiders 10th.
Not every outlet is quite as bullish. Athlon Sports has Texas Tech outside the top 10, even while still viewing the Red Raiders as likely Big 12 champions.
Athlon’s reasoning points to the impact of Sorsby leaving this offseason, along with the loss of Jacob Rodriguez and David Bailey to the NFL draft. Phil Steele, whose preseason magazine has been around since 1995, ranks Texas Tech No.
Still, the broader national picture is clear: Texas Tech is being treated like a team with playoff-level potential. The Red Raiders are widely expected to contend for, or defend, the Big 12 title, and the reasons are obvious from the outside. They earned the most preseason All-Big 12 selections in the conference, their defense is viewed as a top-five unit nationally, and the run game has the kind of upside that can take over a season.
That’s why so many analysts see Joey McGuire’s team as built for the expanded 12-team playoff. The roster depth and spending power stack up with elite programs, and the national models tend to favor the usual heavyweights - Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, and Oregon - when it comes to the actual championship.
The hesitation with Texas Tech isn’t about the floor. It’s about the ceiling, and that comes back to quarterback.
Will Hammond is expected to start the opener if he is fully healthy, but he is also coming back from an ACL injury. National analysts like the defense and the ground game enough to believe Texas Tech can get into the playoff mix, but they’re waiting to see elite quarterback play in the postseason before putting the Red Raiders in the true national title tier.
For now, the label is pretty clear: Big 12 powerhouse, likely playoff team, and a program that national media respects - even if it still wants to see Texas Tech beat ranked Power Four opponents before giving it the sport’s biggest crown.
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