About that 2024 schedule proposal | Texas Tech football Q&A
Over the past two weeks, the Avalanche-Journal has been following the story of Texas Tech football and other schools working with Oregon and Oregon State to help the latter two keep alive the Civil War rivalry, the series between two schools less than 50 miles apart that dates to 1894.
The Oregon-Oregon State games have long been conference games. Now that Oregon is leaving the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten beginning next season, the Ducks are still amenable to playing the Beavers annually in non-conference games, but they need help to make that happen next season.
Enter Texas Tech, Washington State and Boise State making schedule arrangements to help facilitate. If this happens — and Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said the schools are working toward it, but not final — the Red Raiders' Sept. 7 road game next season will be at Washington State instead of Oregon.
Tech is due a $400,000 game guarantee if it plays at Oregon and would get a $500,000 game guarantee if it plays at Washington State, Hocutt said, a net add of $100,000.
Washington State would complete a two-game home-and-home by coming to Lubbock in 2032. Tech's road game at Oregon would be pushed back to 2033.
That generated considerable discussion among Tech fans, so here's a question-and-answer session devoted to it.
Q: So two weeks after saying "no more no-upside road games," Kirby is bought for all of $100k to schedule a "no-upside road game." Great work there, Tech.
DW: Reread the story. Hocutt didn't exactly say "no more no-upside road games." He said with Tech's quarter-billion-dollar stadium project coming into place for next season, Tech will schedule seven home games every year. Tech already has seven home games next season.
Washington State's not a no-upside road game. Cougars players were Power-Five players this year. Just because a Power-Five conference dissolved around them isn't going to make 60 or so returnees less talented next year. WSU beat bowl-bound Wisconsin and Oregon State this season.
Joey McGuire was involved in the discussion also. The Red Raiders aren't going to play next year in Pullman if he objects.
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Q: What was the buyout of the contract Oregon would [have] owed if Tech refused?
DW: Had Tech said no to postponing the game against the Ducks, Oregon would have hosted the Red Raiders next season on Sept. 7 as scheduled. The contract stipulates a $1 million buyout for either side wanting to get out of a game. No one credible has said Oregon was going to do that.
Q: Once the possibility of Oregon leaving the schedule was in the works, Kirby should have been working to schedule a home game. Play WSU, fine, but in Lubbock. Going to Pullman is asinine. Fail by Kirby.
DW: Again, Tech wants to play seven home games. It doesn't want the first road game of the season to be a Big 12 game. And Tech does get a home game with Washington State in 2032 out of the deal. With the collapse of the Pac-12, WSU is the one that has a pressing need for home games next season.
Q: Getting an extra $100k is garbage. Another $1m would’ve made it worthwhile.
DW: That wasn't on the table.
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Q: Don, maybe I’m not wrapping my mind around this but how does it make sense to play a smaller-market team out of a dying conference vs. a very large brand B1G team for $100k? I’m surprised the donors haven’t rioted.
DW: I'll answer this with a bigger-picture long view here, because I think it's a good discussion. Being in a Big 12 weakened by the defections of Oklahoma and Texas, I think Tech is going to need extra power-conference opponents to give the Red Raiders more chances to enhance their stature in the national conversation, in the polls, in recruiting and so on. We just saw Florida State correctly left out of the College Football Playoff because its resume didn't match up to the four teams in.
While it's true the CFP expands to 12 teams next year, does anyone really want to get in via a conference-champion mandate while being ranked well outside the top 10? Wouldn't you prefer to beat a top-15 or so team early and then keep building your case?
Hocutt said if Tech buys out of a 2025 road game at Colorado State, he'll look to replace it with a home game against a Group-of-Five level team.
I'd aim higher.
Every time Tech plays an Oregon or another marquee program is a chance for an attention-getting victory, to put your name into the conversation, to improve your stock. Hence, the reason Tech continues to hound Texas to keep that series alive.
Again, the circumstances in this 2024 schedule discussion perhaps supersede those considerations in this instance.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: About that 2024 schedule proposal | Texas Tech football Q&A
