Just when I was starting to like, respect, and even root for Texas Tech, they go and do this.
As a BYU fan, I'm also a gung-ho Big 12 fan. I love this conference. It provided my beloved Cougars with a Power Four home that the school had been striving to attain for decades. I am a Big 12 loyalist.
The only problem with Big 12 football is there is too much parity and not enough dominance. There are a handful of Big 12 programs that most years can field a team that lands somewhere between No. 12 to 25. But there aren't any dominant, credible programs that are perennially in the Top 10. The Big 12 needs its versions of Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, or Alabama. They need Top 10 programs that are innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the national media and the snobbish College Football Playoff selection committee.
After Texas Tech's emergence last year coupled with the team's financial backing and recruiting prominence, I was all-in on the Red Raiders.
Yes, they annihilated my BYU Cougars twice last year, including in the conference championship game, and all I could do was tip my cap and admit Texas Tech was the superior program. They earned my respect and support -- unless they were playing BYU, of course.
Fast forward to today and in light of the absurd, indefensible, tone-deaf way Texas Tech bungled the Brendan Sorsby situation, and all of that goodwill is gone. I can only speak for myself, but I'm confident I'm not alone.
The stench that will linger over Lubbock
Instead of being the conference's standardbearer, Texas Tech is now an embarrassment to the Big 12.
They not only defied each of the other 15 members of the conference, they flipped them the double bird. Texas Tech's actions were reckless, selfish, arrogant, short-sighted, and damaging. They tried, and failed, to hide behind one bad decision from a local judge instead of just using rational common sense and sound moral judgment. They made threats. They played the victim.
Texas Tech did everything wrong.
The Red Raiders couldn't cook up enough tortilla soup to pair with the embarrassing, illogical, poorly-conceived 21-minute word salad video the school's brass released trying to justify their indefensible position.
A message to the Texas Tech community from our leadership. pic.twitter.com/MpbXtNJakp
— Texas Tech Red Raiders (@TechAthletics) June 12, 2026
In the process of completely bungling the Sorsby situation, Tech went from Big 12 darling to the conference heel. Count me among the "anybody but Texas Tech" crowd this upcoming season.
When Texas Tech humbled my BYU Cougars last year, I was left with a growing admiration for a program in Lubbock that was on the rise. I hoped the Red Raiders would continue their upward trajectory, and thus elevate the entire Big 12 conference.
I was hoping Texas Tech could bring the Big 12 credibility.
Instead they doubled down on the incredulous.
The Sorsby situation might be over, but in the eyes -- and the nostrils -- of many Big 12 fans, Texas Tech came out smelling really bad.
It's a stench of Texas Tech's own making that's going to hang over Lubbock for years to come.
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