{"id":131955,"date":"2026-01-21T14:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/131955\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:24:20","slug":"texas-tech-earns-highest-final-ranking-in-school-history-as-red-raiders-eye-even-bigger-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/131955\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Tech earns highest final ranking in school history as Red Raiders eye even bigger 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Tech earns highest final ranking in school history as Red Raiders eye even bigger 2026 season<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech\u2019s dream College Football Playoff run did not end as planned, but the Red Raiders still claimed their first Big 12 title and reached the CFP quarterfinals before a lopsided 23-0 loss to Oregon.<\/p>\n

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Red Raiders\u2019 historic finish sets the stage for a potential breakthrough 2026 season<\/p>\n

Texas Tech finished the season ranked in the AP top 10 for the first time in program history. Joey McGuire’s Red Raiders finished at No. 7. Along with this achievement, the Red Raiders secured their first Big 12 title, winning a record 12 games, and advanced to the College Football Playoff. This kind of breakthrough suggests that this could be only the beginning in Lubbock.<\/p>\n

Just days after their New Year’s Day loss to Oregon, Texas Tech signed veteran quarterback Brendan Sorsby, a native of North Texas who previously started for the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Big 12 and had a\u00a0breakout season, drawing the attention of NFL scouts, prompting discussions about whether he should declare for the draft or transfer to another program to enhance his resume.<\/p>\n

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He ultimately chose to transfer to the West Texas powerhouse. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about Sorsby,\u201d McGuire said. <\/a>\u201cHe\u2019s back home in Texas. I believe he\u2019s an elite quarterback; he\u2019ll play on Sundays, and he\u2019s going to be a great leader for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Red Raiders, they are backed by the Matador Club and an ambitious 44-year-old alumnus, Cody Campbell, who is all-in on Texas Tech\u2019s success. The billionaire oil and gas executive has become one of the most influential figures in college sports reform. \u201cI\u2019m a threat to the status quo,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cBut the status quo is failing. A lot of people want to hold on to the way things used to be. The fact is, we\u2019ve already crossed the Rubicon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell’s generous $25 million donation was pivotal in launching Texas Tech’s south end zone project and the overall football master plan. He stands in front of the Matador Club, an NIL collective that has raised over $60 million for Red Raiders athletes since 2022. The support for Texas Tech athletics is evident, even as the program navigates a postseason format that still seems unbalanced.<\/p>\n

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Winding down his postgame news conference at Hard Rock Stadium after the loss to Oregon<\/a>, McGuire put it bluntly: \u201cWe\u2019re in a world that makes no sense,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that\u2019s where we\u2019re at, and you\u2019ve got to find a way to be better to win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Tech begins its season at home against Abilene Christian on September 5.<\/p>\n

More CFP National Championship news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Tech earns highest final ranking in school history as Red Raiders eye even bigger 2026 season originally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[14694,784,17968,262,168,170,169,56553,430,1015,32869,304,27,1769,33636],"class_list":["post-131955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-brendan-sorsby","tag-cincinnati-bearcats","tag-cody-campbell","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-matador-club","tag-north-texas","tag-oregon","tag-program-history","tag-raiders","tag-texas","tag-texas-tech","tag-the-red-raiders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}