Texas Tech will ban the tradition of tossing tortillas at kickoffs of home football games after a recent change in Big 12 policy stiffened the penalties and fines for objects thrown onto the field, athletic director Kirby Hocutt said Monday.

Hocutt, who joined Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire for the beginning of his weekly news conference, said the change in stadium policy was prompted to prevent tortilla tossing from impacting the team’s chances of winning games as it pursues its first Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff berth.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark last week altered the conference’s game management policy to allow one warning before levying a 15-yard personal foul penalty and a $100,000 fine for second and subsequent offenses by fans throwing objects onto the playing surface. Previously, the policy allowed for two warnings before penalties were assessed.

“We are no longer going to encourage nor permit the throwing of tortillas at the opening kickoff for our home football games,” Hocutt said. “We have an opportunity and we are on the cusp of a very special football season … we cannot risk letting our actions penalize our football team. The stakes are too high and we need to help, not risk, penalizing our team again for throwing tortillas. Simply, must not do it.”

Tortilla tossing at Jones AT&T Stadium is a decades-old tradition, believed to date back to the 1990s. Texas Tech fans throw tortillas in the air at the opening kickoff, and for years, they’ve often been thrown after subsequent kickoffs.

Under the previous conference policy, Texas Tech incurred two 15-yard penalties — both for tortillas on the playing surface following kickoffs — in its last home game, a 42-17 win over Kansas on Oct. 11. The postgame handshake between McGuire and Kansas coach Lance Leipold became contentious, with the two shouting expletives at each other before being separated.

Leipold complained after the game that one of his staffers was hit with a pocketknife, but the Big 12 later said that statement was “inaccurate.” Each school was fined $25,000 by the conference: Texas Tech for “repeated instances” of fans throwing objects onto the field, Kansas for Leipold’s “disparaging comments about the Conference and a member institution” and the inaccurate pocketknife claim.

Hocutt, on a video call with Texas Tech students last week, announced Yormark’s change in policy and stressed the importance of following it to avoid more penalties and the new six-figure fine. On Monday while announcing the school’s tortilla ban, Hocutt took responsibility for encouraging the continued practice of tossing tortillas after Big 12 athletic directors voted 15-to-1 in August to solidify league policy on allowing two warnings before assessing 15-yard penalties when objects are thrown onto the field.

After the August vote, Hocutt posted on X, “Red Raiders, the rules can change. But our tradition will not.” Hocutt encouraged fans to continue tossing tortilla for the opening kickoff only, which resulted in a warning on game days.

Red Raiders, the rules can change.

But our tradition will not.

How about the @UnitedWestTexas Opening Kickoff Tortilla Launch? #15To1

— Kirby Hocutt (@kirbyhocutt) August 14, 2025

“The situation is on me,” Hocutt said Monday. “I leaned into this, of throwing tortillas at the beginning of the football season. Now, I must ask everyone to stop and I must ask our staff to enforce it on game days.”

McGuire also took responsibility, saying he leaned into it as well. But even before the Kansas game, McGuire pleaded to the fan base to tone down the tortilla tossing to avoid penalties. After the Kansas game, he said he feared the tortilla penalties would eventually hurt the team down the stretch.

Hocutt said the school will encourage and remind fans at stadium entry gates not to bring tortillas in and to discard them before entering the stadium. He said they will also have in-stadium reminders before kickoff for fans to discard any tortillas that make it into the stadium by passing them down the aisle to be disposed of by staff.

Hocutt added that the school will add law enforcement presence to monitor the stands in case fans still choose to throw tortillas.

“You never want to do this, but if there are folks that decide to go ahead and throw tortillas and they are caught, we will suspend their ticket privileges for the remainder of this academic year,” Hocutt said.

The Red Raiders (6-1) had reached No. 7 in the Associated Press poll — their highest ranking since 2008 — before a loss on Saturday at Arizona State dropped them to No. 14. Hocutt stressed that the goal of reaching the Big 12 Championship Game and the Playoff for the first time are still within reach, and he doesn’t want the tortilla issue to get in the way.

“There’s never been more elevation and optimism of the Texas Tech brand than there is today,” Hocutt said. “We are the team that everybody is gunning for. … We want to be the team that when we’re beat, their fans storm the field, because it means that much to play Texas Tech football right now.

“So I can just say #15to1 still exists, it’s us against the world in this Big 12 conference, and our goal is to get to Arlington and raise that trophy.”