Texas Tech football's Big 12 schedule begins with a rarity for the Red Raiders
The Texas Tech football team will open the 2024 Big 12 schedule with back-to-back home games and finish the regular season with a Thanksgiving weekend home game, neither being common occurrences for the Red Raiders.
The Big 12 released each team's conference opponents and sites on Nov. 1. The conference on Tuesday announced the game dates.
Texas Tech will host Arizona State on Sept. 21 and Cincinnati on Sept. 28, meaning four of the Red Raiders' first five games of the season will be at Jones AT&T Stadium, counting non-conference dates with Abilene Christian and North Texas.
West Virginia will come to Lubbock for a Nov. 30 regular-season finale, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The only other time Tech opened the Big 12 schedule with consecutive home games was in 2003 when the Red Raiders beat Texas A&M and Iowa State.
In recent years, Tech generally has preferred not to play at home on Thanksgiving weekend because of attendance concerns related to students leaving town for the holiday. Before Tech hosted Oklahoma on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2022, the Red Raiders had not played at home on Thanksgiving weekend since 2010. The Red Raiders also never played at home on Thanksgiving weekend from 1985 through 2000.
There is an extenuating circumstance this year: Texas Tech and Texas A&M will play a men's basketball game on Nov. 29 at United Supermarkets Arena, so Red Raiders fans will have home games in two marquee sports on consecutive days.
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Tech visits new Big 12 member Arizona on Oct. 5, followed by an open date, hosts Baylor on Oct. 19 and goes to TCU on Oct. 26.
The Red Raiders play at Iowa State on Nov. 2, host Colorado on Nov. 9, have an open date on Nov. 16 and visit Oklahoma State on Nov. 23.
Texas Tech has seven home games with five of the nine Big 12 games at Jones AT&T Stadium. Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said in November that he'll prioritize non-conference scheduling that enables the Red Raiders to have seven home games each year, trying to offset losing home games against departing Big 12 members Texas and Oklahoma.
TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL
2024 SCHEDULE
(Note: Home games in ALL CAPS. Asterisks (*) denote Big 12 conference games. All times to be announced.)
Aug. 31 ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Sept. 7 at Washington State
Sept. 14 NORTH TEXAS
Sept. 21 ARIZONA STATE*
Sept. 28 CINCINNATI*
Oct. 5 at Arizona*
Oct. 12 Open
Oct. 19 BAYLOR*
Oct. 26 at TCU*
Nov. 2 at Iowa State*
Nov. 9 COLORADO*
Nov. 16 Open
Nov. 23 at Oklahoma State*
Nov. 30 WEST VIRGINIA*
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football's 2024 Big 12 schedule begins with a rarity
