{"id":77591,"date":"2025-12-05T18:39:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/77591\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:39:06","slug":"byu-fans-will-be-outnumbered-in-big-12-championship-game-in-texas-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/77591\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU fans will be outnumbered in Big 12 championship game in Texas \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 With thousands and thousands of Texas Tech fans living within a five-hour drive of AT&T Stadium, the Red Raiders will have a decided home-crowd advantage over BYU on Saturday in the Big 12 football championship game in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n

Cougars on the air<\/p>\n

Big 12 Championship Game<\/p>\n

No. 11 BYU (11-1, 8-1) vs. No. 5 Texas Tech (11-1, 8-1)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 10 a.m. MSTAt AT&T StadiumTV: ABCRadio:\u00a0102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n

The metropolitan area of Lubbock had a population of 367,109 as of 2024, and Texas Tech football is pretty much the only game in town. Texas Tech also has a \u201csignificant alumni presence\u201d in the Metroplex \u2014 close to 400,000 \u2014 according to the Texastechalumni.org website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kickoff is at 10 a.m. MST and the game will be televised by ABC, with Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer on the call and Kris Budden and Katie George on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there are a lot of Red Raiders that are fired up and are going to be there in Arlington, and have been waiting for this moment of us playing for the Big 12 championship for a long time,\u201d head coach Joey McGuire said Monday. \u201cIt is going to be an incredible game. And what\u2019s going to be fun is the stadium will be packed. There\u2019s going to be a lot of red and a lot of blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capacity at the home of the Dallas Cowboys is listed at 80,000, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said the event was close to being sold out<\/a> as of Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is exciting,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cIt means a lot to this town, and it means a lot to Red Raider Nation. We can\u2019t wait to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday, the conference reported that the game is indeed sold out, and a record crowd of more than 84,000 is expected.<\/p>\n

Approximately 2,500 BYU fans attended the regular-season game in Lubbock on Nov. 8, a game easily won 29-7 by the home team<\/a>. That was the fewest number of BYU fans at any of the Cougars\u2019 six road games in 2025, as tickets at Jones AT&T Stadium are hard to get.<\/p>\n

Still, noted McGuire, \u201cthere was a lot of blue here. I love that. That\u2019s the great thing about BYU \u2014 they travel. I saw it when I was at Baylor. There was some green and a whole lot of blue when they came to Waco in 2021 when I was still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lubbock is 328 miles northwest of Arlington, a little less than a five-hour drive. BYU coach Kalani Sitake got a first-hand look at the rabidness of the Texas Tech fan base in Lubbock, and also made a plea Monday for BYU fans to flock to the venue known as \u201cJerry\u2019s World\u201d \u2014 in recognition of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out there and played in the game in Lubbock,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cGreat atmosphere, great environment, but not too friendly for us. It was a really cool experience (but) we did not show up at our best. A lot of that had to do with Texas Tech. They are a complete team with a great coach, a great coaching staff and (in) all three phases they play amazing football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU Cougars quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) throws a pass with Texas Tech Red Raiders linebacker David Bailey (31) defending as BYU and Texas Tech play at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock Texas on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News <\/p>\n

BYU last played in AT&T Stadium in 2011, a 38-28 loss to TCU. In 2009, the Cougars defeated Oklahoma 14-13 in the first college football game ever played<\/a> in the massive sports and entertainment venue with a retractable roof (although it is rarely opened).<\/p>\n

BYU defensive lineman Justin Kirkland played for Oklahoma State in the 2023 Big 12 championship game at the stadium, but the No. 18 Cowboys lost 49-21 to the No. 7 Texas Longhorns.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got two juggernaut teams going at it there this week,\u201d Kirkland told the CougConnect podcast Monday. \u201cIt will be a phenomenal atmosphere, just like it was (two years ago).\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Tech\u2019s roster includes 25 players from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, along with \u201cnumerous\u201d coaching staff members, according to a school news release. Texas Tech is no stranger to the stadium in Arlington, as the Red Raiders played Baylor annually there from 2009-18.<\/p>\n

A well-known high school coach in Texas before he joined the Baylor staff in 2017, McGuire coached Cedar Hill High in state championship games at Cowboys Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my favorite place in the world to coach, Cowboys Stadium,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to coach there a lot, at Cedar Hill and at Baylor. I\u2019m excited for our players to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 101 seasons of football, Texas Tech has never faced an opponent twice in the same year; in its 101 seasons, BYU has played a team in a rematch from the regular season only once \u2014 in 2007 the Cougars lost to UCLA 27-17 in Pasadena and then defeated the Bruins 17-16 in the Las Vegas Bowl.<\/p>\n

BYU has played in two conference championship games in its history, defeating Wyoming 28-25 in overtime in the 1996 WAC championship in Las Vegas and losing 20-13 to No. 13 Air Force in the 1998 WAC championship in the same city.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the Big 12 has been amazing for our team, for our fan base and for all of Cougar Nation,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cWe have enjoyed all the different venues we have played in, and our partnership in the Big 12. It has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there hope for BYU, which is a two-touchdown underdog?<\/p>\n

Consider this: Since the Big 12 championship game returned in 2017, six contests have been rematches of regular-season games. Four teams that lost the first meeting won the second meeting.<\/p>\n

\"IowaIowa State plays Arizona State in action during Big 12 Conference championship game at AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, Saturday Dec. 7, 2024. This Saturday, BYU will play Texas Tech for the league title in Arlington. | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 With thousands and thousands of Texas Tech fans living within a five-hour drive of AT&T…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,17092],"class_list":{"0":"post-77591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news","11":"tag-news-feed-local"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77591","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=77591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}