Pick your place: Dec. 16 forces a choice on Texas Tech football, basketball fans
Dec. 16, a week from Saturday, is circled on the calendar for a great many people connected to Texas Tech, not just Texas Tech football fans.
The Red Raider men's basketball team squares off with Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m. that day at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. The Red Raiders football team and California, both 6-6, tangle at 8:15 p.m. that day at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Oh, and the university's fall-semester commencement ceremonies are on the Friday and Saturday of Dec. 15-16. The sports-minded among them might want to be in more than one city at once.
"I think Texas Tech has enough (Dallas-Fort Worth) Metroplex and East Texas and Houston fans that I think we'll be well-represented at the bowl and we'll be well-represented in Fort Worth," senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti said this week. "I empathize with our fans that want to do both and can't do both, but I think we'll still be well-represented at both games. I still think people will realize Texas Tech fans turn out."
More: Texas Tech football vs. California in Independence Bowl: Score prediction, scouting report
More: A look at Texas Tech basketball's remaining non-conference schedule
Bowl committees generally get to make the call in choosing the teams they want from the pool available. Tech officials didn't try to diplomatically orchestrate the Red Raiders into another bowl on a day with fewer conflicts, Giovannetti said.
"We discuss those things and those different factors in our selection committee meetings when we're talking about different teams," Independence Bowl director of communications Erik Evenson said, "and I never heard that come up or never heard it play a significant factor in any of those meetings."
Evenson said he wasn't privy to everything discussed by the selection committee and Tech officials, but said he saw no sign that Tech would have preferred to play elsewhere on another date.
"To my knowledge, both sides were very excited about this match between the Independence Bowl and Texas Tech," Evenson said. "I heard nothing but excitement on my end throughout the whole process."
The Tech-Vanderbilt basketball game is game two in a Dec. 16 tripleheader called the Coast-to-Coast Challenge. Sandwiched around it are games pitting UT-Arlington and Air Force at 4 p.m. and TCU and Arizona State at 9 p.m.
"We did try to, we did see what we could do, about moving the basketball game time-wise," Giovannetti said. "But the organizers already have things planned, the other teams have things planned, so it just wasn't possible to move it. They tried to accommodate us, but they just couldn't."
Texas Tech's fall-semester final exams period runs from Thursday through Tuesday. The Tech football team is working out during that time, adjusting its practice schedule to minimize classroom conflicts. On Tuesday, for example, the Red Raiders normally practice in the morning, but they practiced at night this week.
The Red Raiders will be the home team at the Independence Bowl. They will travel to Shreveport next Wednesday, arriving three days before the game. Their practices will be in the Independence Bowl stadium itself.
As for commencement, a separate ceremony is planned for 13 Red Raiders football players.
The Independence Bowl allotted Tech 6,744 tickets, and season-ticket holders and Red Raider Club members had reserved about 2,600 as of Tuesday afternoon. The remaining tickets from the allotment went on sale Wednesday morning.
When one set of Red Raiders is walking off the court in Fort Worth, another set should be kicking off in Shreveport. Under other circumstances, particularly for Tech's large alumni base in the Metroplex, a significant number of fans would go see both games.
"I empathize with those people," Giovannetti reiterated, "but I don't think it's going to be a negative. I don't think we're going to look at either place and go, 'There's not a lot of Tech fans there.' Our fans always show out no matter where we go, so I'm confident we'll be well-represented in Shreveport and in Fort Worth."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Pick your place: Dec. 16 forces a choice on Texas Tech sports fans
