LUBBOCK, Texas \u2014 In February, during the grand opening of Texas Tech\u2019s 300,000-square foot, $242 million football facility, athletic director Kirby Hocutt, delivering a speech from behind a pulpit within this goliath of a structure, gestures into the audience before him.<\/p>\n
He identifies those responsible for not only this lavish building but the talented new roster that trains within it.<\/p>\n
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In the room of dignitaries and donors, among the more than 200 people here to celebrate what the school believes is its informal arrival as one of college football\u2019s havenots now-turned haves, there is gobs of money: at least a half-dozen billionaires and 30 more families worth at least nine figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have done it without you,\u201d Hocutt says to them.<\/p>\n
But, in a way, the responsible party lies well below this facility, deep within the Earth\u2019s rock: a well of oil the size of the state of Florida. The Permian Basin, the largest oil field in the United States, produces more than 6 million barrels of oil per day and generates 40% of the country\u2019s oil supply.<\/p>\n
It fuels something else: the Texas Tech football team.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s why we are so well funded. So many alumni have gone to work around this oil field,\u201d says booster Cody Campbell, a former Tech player who sold his last three oil businesses for a combined $13 billion.<\/p>\n
Eight months after the unveiling of that new facility, in the wake of arguably the most lucrative and aggressive recruiting effort from any program in the country, the Texas Tech football team is 8-1<\/a>, ranked as the eighth-best team in the land<\/a> and poised for its most momentous game in nearly two decades this Saturday when No. 7 BYU (8-0) visits in a Big 12 showdown in West Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Red Raiders are scoring in bunches and stuffing opponents. After all, they are one of only three teams that rank inside the top 10 in both total offense and total defense (the others: Indiana and Oregon). Issues that have plagued this program for years \u2014 defensive lapses and physicality up front \u2014 are no longer problems.<\/p>\n They are led by a genuinely gregarious Texan as coach, Joey McGuire, who fits here like a wide-brimmed hat atop the head of a cowboy. And they are funded by some of the richest oil barons in the world, a group that pooled their resources this spring in an effort to elevate this place into a different stratosphere.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n They took advantage of the circumstances. This year, the old NIL era and the new revenue-share concept overlapped to create the final uncapped market for college players \u2014 a last gasp of booster-funded deals before a new enforcement entity arrived July 1.<\/p>\n In all, Tech donors raised a jaw-dropping $49 million from July 2024 to July 2025, much of that front-loaded cash paid to players (of all sports) before this academic year began.<\/p>\n And they aren\u2019t afraid to talk about it, either.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to be upfront about it,\u201d says Gary Petersen, an oil investor living in Houston and a mega-donor who, with Campbell and John Sellers, cut the biggest checks this spring.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting to me, in terms of money, we\u2019re the new kids on the block,\u201d he continues. \u201cTexas and A&M and all the large schools have given money to their players probably forever. Now, they\u2019re getting mad at us. \u2018Texas Tech?!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Is this the awakening of a sleeping giant?<\/p>\n Is Texas Tech a next new football power within college sports?<\/p>\n \u201cThere are different times in college football where there is a change occurring that creates opportunity,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cI visited Nebraska recently. They got good when they figured out weight lifting better than anyone else.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our next opportunity to raise ourselves a tier and move into the top of college football.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u2018Why not us?\u2019<\/p>\n McGuire often asks that question to those around him. After all, he says, why can\u2019t Texas Tech, with its oil riches, recruiting resources and plush facilities, join the blue bloods of college football as its newest member?<\/p>\n McGuire, 54, knows winning football. In the country\u2019s most competitive state for high school football, he won four state championships in 14 seasons at his alma mater in Crowley, a small city located 15 miles south of Fort Worth.<\/p>\n McGuire is a recruiter and motivator \u2014 known as one of the true culture-builders within college football. With players, he\u2019s a loveable father figure who fuels their desire to win. With donors, he\u2019s an adept politician and fundraising whiz, extroverted and hospitable \u2014 a charmer with authenticity.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cHe has not one fake bone in his body,\u201d says Lawrence Schovanec, the school\u2019s 72-year-old president. \u201cWe all know that NIL investing hasn\u2019t worked at some places. The locker rooms have soured. Not here, because of Joey.\u201d<\/p>\n This is sort of a dream realized for McGuire, who says he turned down the UTSA job in 2019 only to be passed over for the Baylor job a month later.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be more lucky,\u201d he now says. \u201cWhat\u2019s crazy is you fast forward to Year 4 and just the amount of support \u2014 the new facility, NIL, revenue-share \u2026 it\u2019s turned into as good of a job as there is in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n McGuire has established a culture here of homegrown Texas talent. In fact, Tech\u2019s roster is loaded with Texas high school products at key positions: the team\u2019s top passer; top two rushers; three of the top four receivers; three of the starting five offensive linemen; and four of the top five tacklers. Even many of those who transferred to the school are former Texas products who returned to their home state, such as leading wideout and former Florida receiver Caleb Douglas, starting lineman and former North Carolina Tar Heel Howard Sampson, and top tackler and ex-Virginia linebacker Jacob Rodriguez.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n However, the most significant portal additions on the roster are outsiders, most notably the nation\u2019s sack leader in Stanford transfer David Bailey and fellow rush end Romello Height, previously of Georgia Tech. The starting offensive line features a pair of former all-conference MAC and American players. The team\u2019s do-it-all safety, Cole Wisniewski, came from North Dakota State, and the team\u2019s leader in interceptions, Brice Pollock, got here through Mississippi State.<\/p>\n The portal hunt last December started at a goal of signing 12 players. It finished at 17, McGuire says. According to On3Sports, the transfer class ranked No. 1 in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hit home runs,\u201d the coach says.<\/p>\n The recruiting effort was an organized outfit from several men \u2014 the evaluating mainly from general manager James Blanchard, the recruiting from McGuire and primary funding from Campbell, Sellers and Petersen.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Blanchard and company used an analytics platform in their evaluation, Big League Advantage, to project players into their system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to bring in mercenaries or were bad teammates,\u201d says Campbell.<\/p>\n But perhaps the most important part was the funding \u2014 an effort that began with a Dallas-area meeting well before the December transfer portal period opened.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t cheap,\u201d says Campbell, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t about the money we spent. It\u2019s about how we spent it.\u201d<\/p>\n In July 2024, Texas Tech\u2019s biggest donors gathered in a private room at Shady Oaks Country Club, one of the most premier golfing destinations in the country located just west of Fort Worth.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Campbell, a club member, hosted the event to pitch his idea: Before schools begin to compensate athletes legally in a capped revenue-share system the following fall, Texas Tech, with its oil riches, could use booster-backed deals in the spring of 2025 to pay athletes just as much as any of the blue-blood powers.<\/p>\n Why not go all in?<\/p>\n At the meeting, Campbell, Sellers and Petersen committed to matching one another\u2019s donations to the cause.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all sat down and said, \u2018We want to win really bad,\u2019\u201d Petersen recalls.<\/p>\n A few days later, within Hocutt\u2019s office, the donors, Blanchard, McGuire and the athletic director finalized the plans.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cCody said, \u2018Let me go raise this NIL money with the collective here and we can piggyback that on with the revenue sharing,\u2019\u201d Campbell recalls. \u201cIt gives us X amount of money to work with and get a team to compete at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201cX\u201d is about $49 million, Petersen says. Though a portion of that was spent on men\u2019s basketball and other sports, the football roster accounted for the lion\u2019s share.<\/p>\n Multiple power conference football and basketball programs orchestrated a similar plan of frontloading booster money this past spring. In fact, booster spending on athletes this past June was more than 800% higher than last June, according to Opendorse, an NIL platform used by dozens of collectives.<\/p>\n But Texas Tech outspent most of them, especially fellow Big 12 member schools, many of which are financially stressed and devoid of a billionaire donor base. Frontloading so much cash is an advantage not just this year but next year, too. It gives Texas Tech the ability to save the $20.5 million revenue-share pool allotted to schools for this academic year to be spent on next year\u2019s roster, a new transfer class and a high school signing class this spring.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In July, from Big 12 football media day, other head coaches in the conference bemoaned the situation, lobbing not-so-subtle jabs toward Tech and its approach.<\/p>\n \u201cThose people must not be planning on there being a cap because they wouldn\u2019t be able to spend that,\u201d said UCF coach Scott Frost.<\/p>\n The very next month, another offseason jab came the Red Raiders\u2019 way.<\/p>\n Big 12 athletic directors voted, 15-1, to enforce an old policy related to objects thrown on the playing surface \u2014 a decision targeting the tradition from Tech fans of tossing tortillas into the air and, sometimes, onto the field or bench areas at kickoff.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n McGuire says the entire situation has fueled something within the conference: \u201cUs against everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Even national broadcasters can\u2019t quite help themselves when it comes to Tech\u2019s big spending.<\/p>\n In his opening monologue during Tuesday\u2019s inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee rankings<\/a>, ESPN personality Rece Davis identified each postseason contender with a team\u2019s defining characteristic.<\/p>\n As the Texas Tech logo popped onto the screen, Davis said, \u201cSome have arrived with audacity and the backing of money.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell says the school\u2019s \u201ctransparency\u201d lends itself to criticism.<\/p>\n \u201cOther schools have spent as much or more than we did, but we aren\u2019t expected to do that?\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not supposed to be competitive? We\u2019re supposed to be this middling team?\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n From Hocutt\u2019s perspective, jealousy is at the root of the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen other athletic departments see the support we have from the university and the excitement and synergy from fans and they see the resources from a donors base fueling this athletic department, they are envious,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The passion for Tech goes deep with Campbell, Sellers and Petersen, and so does their connection within the oil-drilling, oil-selling and oil-investing industry.<\/p>\n Sellers and Campbell played football at Texas Tech under Mike Leach and co-own Double Eagle Energy Holdings, an independent oil and natural gas company. They most recently sold a portion \u2014 a portion \u2014 of the company for $4 billion.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Most of the sale was in cash.<\/p>\n Petersen, an Amarillo native and a second-generation Tech graduate whose son graduated from the school as well, owns EnCap Investments, a private-equity firm specializing in the oil and gas industry whose firm actually backs Double Eagle.<\/p>\n EnCap\u2019s total assets are worth nearly $20 billion.<\/p>\n But the three are far from the only big players in this game.<\/p>\n Dusty Womble, the namesake for the new football facility and a retired computer technologies executive, donated in 2017 what was at the time the largest single gift to the athletic department: $20 million. Mike Wallace, an energy and oil businessman in Midland, donated two separate $5 million gifts to the new facility.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Hocutt, himself a native Texan, finds himself in one of the best situations of any athletic director in America at such a financially troubling time for so many.<\/p>\n After all, he says, in West Texas, there are but three things.<\/p>\n \u201cTexas, oil and football.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018College sports are in crisis\u2019<\/p>\n Off the field, whether it prefers it or not, Texas Tech is at the center of a much more significant fight playing out \u2014 one that could shape the future of college sports.<\/p>\n This spring, on Capitol Hill, a four-page pamphlet found its way to the offices of several lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cCollege sports are in crisis,\u201d the title reads.<\/p>\n The document details why and how the Big Ten and SEC are monopolizing the college sports industry by \u201cseizing power\u201d in the wake of court rulings that collapsed long-standing NCAA rules. The two leagues have swelled with so many big brands that they are \u201choarding media money and resources and crushing smaller schools,\u201d the pamphlet said.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The document derived from Campbell, who this year started a non-profit organization, Saving College Sports, with the purpose of overhauling its archaic model to generate more revenue for financially stressed schools who may eventually eliminate completely or, at the very least, reduce investment in Olympic and women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n Campbell\u2019s idea is to open the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to permit FBS conferences to consolidate their television and media-rights packages \u2014 a move that, he and others contend, will generate twice as much revenue from TV partners.<\/p>\n Campbell\u2019s pamphlet has turned much more serious as of late.<\/p>\n He\u2019s paid millions of dollars to run national television advertisements during college football games this season, where he speaks critically about those who are not supportive of his plan, most notably the power conference commissioners.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n A close ally of President Donald Trump and an influential Republican backer, Campbell\u2019s sway on Capitol Hill has been considerable enough that one long-time congressional staff member remarked recently, \u201cI\u2019ve never seen someone have such an impact here so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n In September, Campbell took his fight to the House of Representatives, helping delay a vote of the NCAA-backed SCORE Act by influencing many Republican members that it does not provide a good enough solution (it does not open the Sports Broadcasting Act).<\/p>\n However, two months later and after some amendments to the bill, Campbell now says he is supporting the passage of the SCORE Act, something that could happen as soon as the government returns from what is now a more than 30-day shutdown.<\/p>\n When or if the SCORE Act reaches the Senate \u2014 where many believe it will die without major changes \u2014 Campbell hopes the legislation will be combined with the Democrat-backed SAFE Act, a bill authored by Sen. Maria Cantwell and one that opens the Sports Broadcasting Act.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In fact, Campbell has received commitments from both leaders in the House and Senate in holding hearings on the Sports Broadcasting Act.<\/p>\n About a week ago, while visiting the White House, Campbell says the president asked him about college sports legislation. \u201cIt\u2019s at the top of his mind,\u201d he says. \u201cI expect soon you\u2019ll see the [Trump] administration more involved.\u201d<\/p>\n While his idea would generate more revenue for the Big Ten and SEC, his concept more evenly distributes money to all FBS programs to create more competitive equity, including Big 12 schools like Texas Tech. Those pushing back against such a more even distribution \u2014 namely the Big Ten and SEC \u2014 believe something else is behind Campbell\u2019s campaign: Texas Tech.<\/p>\n He bristles at such accusations. Without legislation to consolidate media rights and deliver equity, he agrees with what many predict: The most powerful conferences or, perhaps, the biggest brand schools will formally separate from all others.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cIf the whole thing blows up, Tech has plenty of resources,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cWe\u2019d be one of the ones that make it. I\u2019d just let it blow up if I was doing it just because of Texas Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n McGuire and Hocutt are on Campbell\u2019s side \u2014 and so are many, as it turns out, in leagues outside of the Big Ten and SEC.<\/p>\n In fact, several university presidents and conference commissioners from the other eight FBS leagues have held meetings not only with Campbell, but also with leaders of SMASH Capital, a group of former Disney<\/a> and ESPN executives who \u2014 now working in tandem with Campbell \u2014 are pitching to administrators a concept dubbed Project Rudy<\/a>. Project Rudy operationalizes a new FBS structure under a consolidated media-rights deal and a universal scheduling model, both to increase value to schools.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate Cody spending so many resources and have the platform with the White House to bring this forward,\u201d Hocutt says. \u201cThe best thing for Texas Tech athletics is if things stayed the way they were in the collective era, but that\u2019s not what\u2019s best for college athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u2018People want to win\u2019<\/p>\n As early as Monday, Texas Tech students began camping outside of the football stadium in preparation for Saturday\u2019s big game.<\/p>\n ESPN “College GameDay” is originating from Lubbock. The 11 a.m. local time kickoff is slated for an ABC national telecast. The game is sold out. And the private jets are scheduled to arrive in droves.<\/p>\n Texas Tech football is back in America\u2019s national spotlight for the first time since the now-departed Leach roamed the sideline.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be crazy here on Saturday,\u201d says Schovanec, the university president entering his 10th year.<\/p>\n Like any school leader, Schovanec sees the athletic department as the so-called \u201cfront porch\u201d of the academic institution. The investment into Tech football \u2014 after all, those oil dollars could go elsewhere right? \u2014 is an extension of the university\u2019s marketing and promotional arm.<\/p>\n Applications to the school are up at a time when most enrollment is declining, he says. Even those athletic donors are taking part in academic fundraising too. Texas Tech is in the midst of a capital campaign that is nearing $1 billion raised from 85,000 donors over five years.<\/p>\n Schovanec hears about some of his presidential colleagues lamenting the state of college athletics and refusing to invest at such high levels.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t believe them.<\/p>\n \u201cYou hear certain presidents say they\u2019re not going to be all in, but on the other hand, tell me who\u2019s not doing it?\u201d he says. \u201cI think people may say that they have misgivings, but when push comes to shove, people want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Here, in this West Texas town, they want to win.<\/p>\n How badly? Hocutt provides another example.<\/p>\n The school recently created a new donor group called the Athletic Director Circle. A family must commit to a one-time seven-figure donation.<\/p>\n The school set a goal of 20 commitments. In just a few short months, the fundraising effort has already gained 25 members who have committed more than $35 million.<\/p>\n Hocutt chuckles again.<\/p>\n \u201cTexas. Oil. And football.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas \u2014 In February, during the grand opening of Texas Tech\u2019s 300,000-square foot, $242 million football facility,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17968,261,23249,9909,1888,8089,168,462,27,29,28,1769,375],"class_list":{"0":"post-37019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-cody-campbell","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-gary-petersen","11":"tag-georgia-tech","12":"tag-joey-mcguire","13":"tag-kirby-hocutt","14":"tag-lubbock","15":"tag-oil","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-headlines","18":"tag-texas-news","19":"tag-texas-tech","20":"tag-west-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37019","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=37019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}