Texas Tech leaders press UT on future of non-conference schedule

In September 2021, Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said he and Texas AD Chris Del Conte had discussed the idea of the Red Raiders and the Longhorns continuing to play in all sports, especially football, for 20 to 25 years after UT leaves the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.

Not only did they discuss it, Hocutt said, but UT leadership affirmed they would work with Tech to make sure the football series played annually since 1960 would continue.

A year later, Tech officials are anxious that there's been no movement on that front. They say they believe UT leaders have told Longhorn alumni groups that there are no plans to continue a series with Tech.

"As I've talked to my counterpart at the University of Texas," Hocutt said, "while all the right things have been communicated to me, it's concerning that in the last couple of weeks I've heard from individuals in Dallas, in Fort Worth and in Midland that there's different things being said from those folks representing the University of Texas and that a scheduling alliance against Texas Tech is not going to happen."

Del Conte said Wednesday he believes the Longhorns playing other Texas schools is important, but he's not in position to schedule future non-conference games until he knows how many conference games — eight? nine? — the Longhorns will be playing when they move to the SEC.

The Avalanche-Journal asked Del Conte if he agreed with Tech's characterization of discussions revolving around a 20- to 25-year series.

"I wouldn't say it was anything more than the idea of playing each other, the Texas schools," Del Conte said. "That's all way premature, to me. The issues were really just about playing Texas schools is the way I looked at it, and Texas Tech is part of that. I mean, I get it.

"But it's all premature, because we didn't know who we're going to play (in the SEC) and how we're going to play. That's why I said, 'Hey, I get the thought process. We're just nowhere near there today.' That was it. There's nothing negative about it."

Del Conte was AD at TCU from 2009 to 2017. In between the time the Southwest Conference collapsed and Big 12 competition began in 1996 until TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012, the Horned Frogs have had a long non-conference series against SMU, multiple games against Baylor, a couple against Tech and one against Texas.

Del Conte pointed to that scheduling as evidence of how he values non-conference games against in-state rivals. He said he loved it and appreciated the other schools scheduling the Horned Frogs.

He called playing instate schools "great for the state of Texas."

"From my perspective, playing Texas schools is something that we're keenly interested in," Del Conte said. "Moving forward, we've just got to know where we are with our conference. We have yet to know what the SEC schedule's going to look like for the future. So we're just focusing right now on the Big 12 for the next couple of years, and then we'll see where it lands moving forward."

Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations on July 30, 2021, to join the SEC no later than the summer of 2025. Soon after, a Texas Tech delegation twice met with Gov. Greg Abbott to convey Tech's need to maintain an annual football game against UT.

"We had a chance on two occasions to share with him the importance of the competition between two large, public, state universities to continue," Hocutt said, "and he completely understood that and gave his full assurance that we had his support for that to continue for a 20- , 25-year period. He pledged that he would be our champion and gave assurances that that was going to happen."

When contacted in late August for this story, a spokesman for Abbott said the governor's position hasn't changed.

"The governor remains committed to seeing Texas Tech play the University of Texas," Mark Miner said.

Asked to what extent Abbott planned to weigh in or take action to bring a long-term series to fruition, Miner said, "He remains committed to seeing it happen."

Miner declined to answer additional questions or to arrange an Avalanche-Journal interview with Abbott.

Tech officials believe continuing to play the Longhorns is vital, especially with the uncertainty of the future value of Big 12 multimedia rights agreements that don't involve Texas and Oklahoma. Appearing at a hearing of Texas lawmakers last August, then-Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told the panel about half the value of the Big 12 TV contracts derived from the Sooners' and Longhorns' presence.

Tech hosts Texas on Sept. 24 in the Big 12 opener, the 63rd season in a row in which the two programs have faced each other. In their trips to Lubbock every other year from 1962 through 2020, the Longhorns have been the top ticket seller on the Red Raiders' home schedule 29 seasons out of 30. In two of those seasons, games against UT and another opponent were listed as sellouts with identical attendance. Only the Tech-Nebraska game in 1996, the first season of the Big 12, drew a larger crowd during a year when the Longhorns played at Jones Stadium.

Cody Campbell, a member of the Tech University System Board of Regents, said UT playing football in Lubbock makes "easily an eight-figure per year impact on the local community." He said that's what studies have shown regarding the value of the game to Lubbock-area hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

"Plus, it impacts our ability to sell season tickets," Campbell said. "It drives TV viewership. The impact is massive. It raises the profile of the university. It gets more butts in the seats.

"And then also it's a traditional rival that we've played for a very long time, and we'd love to see that continue. What I see UT doing is exactly what A&M did to UT whenever (Texas A&M) left for the SEC. They were just refusing to play them."

Hocutt and Campbell said they were present for the discussions last year with Abbott, along with Tech Chancellor Tedd Mitchell, Tech President Lawrence Schovanec and former Chancellor Kent Hance.

"By the time we got there," Campbell said, "the deal with the SEC was more or less done, but we explained to the governor what a difficult position UT doing that to us puts Tech in — that we really needed to make sure that Texas Tech remains strong. That we're very important to the state, to the economy and very important to West Texas and the Lubbock community. The idea was brought up that Tech and UT would play each other every year for 20 to 25 years after UT left the conference. The governor said he would absolutely make that happen."

Tech leadership is lobbying Abbott for support on more than the UT series. During a February public appearance in Lubbock, Abbott told the crowd he wants state legislators to create an endowment of $1 billion for Texas Tech.

Campbell said that subject was discussed during the sit-down last summer.

"That was also heavily supported by the governor," Campbell said. "He said he would do everything to make that happen — recognizing that something like that would have to go through the legislature as well — but he would be very supportive of it. And so we left that meeting feeling pretty good about it. We felt like the governor was on our side and he was doing everything he could to help us, given what the situation was, and since then he's been supportive continually of those promises and telling us it was going to happen.

"However, we've been very concerned with UT's reluctance to follow through on the promises to actually play us and schedule us even though around last summer they were reflecting exactly what the governor said: They were happy to schedule us and looked forward to playing us and continue the rivalry. But they're both publicly and privately saying they're not going to do it.

"That's very concerning to me, but I'm very confident that the governor is going to come through for us and help those promises be fulfilled."

Del Conte said he has not sent mixed messages about his interest in having the Red Raiders as a non-conference opponent in the future.

"I don't know who's putting words or where," Del Conte said. "I can tell you that my same conversation every single time has been, Hey, you know what? Playing Texas schools are important. Playing Texas schools are important, any Texas schools. It could be SMU, Rice, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor. Those are important to us. We have a long history with those schools. Those are important. Playing Texas schools will be important for our non-conference schedule.

"We don't know our current conference schedule. That's been the conversation every single time, and I think you should characterize it that way, because it's factual."

Hocutt acknowledged issues would have to be navigated, with uncertainty about the number of conference games Big 12 teams and SEC teams will play after this ongoing round of realignment. Upon Texas' and Oklahoma's decisions last year to join the SEC, the Big 12 quickly added Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston.

Teams also schedule non-conference opponents years in advance. Tech's non-conference schedule is full through the 2027 season. The Red Raiders also have two non-conference opponents each set for 2028, 2029, 2030 and 2032 and one each in 2031 and 2034.

Hocutt said Tech would look to move some of those games to prioritize scheduling non-conference games against Texas.

"We've talked multiple times about the importance of this, which he reiterates and confirms," Hocutt said of Del Conte. "When respected leaders come to you and say there's a different message being relayed to them, I think it makes you wonder what the truth is, with so many unknowns. There's so many unknowns about the future, but we would like to memorialize it with signatures that there's a commitment on behalf of both universities to continue this scheduling well into the future, because I believe it's important to the state of Texas."

Hocutt said Tech wants to play UT "in everything." He said maintaining instate rivalries incentivizes young people in Texas to want to grow up and attend the state's high-profile universities. He also pointed out the interest that Tech-UT games generate in other sports, in Austin included.

"We sell their tickets, right?" Hocutt said. "We fill up their basketball arena, and we fill up their baseball stadium, fill up their football stadium. So no different than any other university in Texas, when the Red Raiders come, we bring the Red Raider nation and it financially benefits them through their ticket sales."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech officials press UT on future of non-conference schedule