Those teams were the SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs (#3), and the Texas Tech Red Raiders, champions of the Big 12 (#4).
The Red Raiders claimed their first conference championship since they were a member of the Southwest Conference in 1994. Two years later, the conference folded, with four Texas schools (Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Texas, and Baylor) joining the Big 8 to form the Big 12.
Texas Tech will host the winner of the James Madison (#12)/Oregon (#5) matchup in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. You have to go back to the 2010 TicketCity Bowl for the last time that Texas Tech football played a bowl game on January 1, and the 2009 Cotton Bowl for the last time a Red Raider bowl game in the new year had significant meaning.
Joey McGuire found something in the 2025 Red Raiders to break through from the middle of the pack in the Big 12, to a 12-1 record, and their best conference record since the late Mike Leach’s 7-1 mark in 2008 to get to the Cotton Bowl. McGuire is 32-17 in his first four seasons, each of which has resulted in a postseason appearance. The Raiders are looking for their fourth bowl win in the past five seasons.
Texas Tech dominated BYU as their lead competition this season twice within a month. The Raiders were victorious 29-7 in Lubbock on November 8, then shut out the Cougars after an opening drive touchdown in the Big 12 Championship, en route to a 34-7 thrashing. Texas Tech racked up 374 yards of total offense, and forced four turnovers. Senior quarterback Behren Morton threw for 2,643 yards, 22 touchdowns, and only four interceptions this year. Morton is projected to be a late first round pick in April’s NFL Draft, but more likely should go in the second or third rounds.
Morton at 6-foot-2 is not ideal to go in the top 10 like Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner from Big 10 Champion Indiana. His accuracy and decision making draws more comparison to Dylan Gabriel, who went to Cleveland in the third round last year, and has been miserable with the Browns over four starts so far this year. However, Red Raider fans are more concerned about his performance over the possibility of the next four weeks, not where he may land in the NFL next spring.
A lone defeat to Arizona State on October 18 is all that kept the Red Raiders from being one of the top two seeds in the playoffs. After taking a 22-19 lead with 2:00 remaining in the game, Arizona State went 75 yards in 10 plays for a game-winning touchdown with 34 seconds remaining, earning a 26-22 upset win. Texas Tech was an 84.2% favorite to win with 94 seconds, and Arizona State facing a 1st and 10 on their own 34 yard line.
With how the seedings shook out, Texas Tech was the only team from the Big 12 to get into the playoff field, while the SEC sent five teams, and three from the Big 10. Miami’s dominating win over Duke in the ACC Championship Game earned an automatic bid as the 10th-seed, a far cry from earlier in the season where many thought they were the best team in the country. Their head-to-head victory over Notre Dame in the season opener was the deciding factor to leave the Fighting Irish home, or rather the catalyst for Notre Dame to take their ball and go home. The Irish opted out of consideration for any other bowl games in the wake of the announcement of their snub.
The idea of a Texas Tech and Indiana semifinal matchup is highly intriguing, as the national narrative of two underdog programs facing off for a shot to play of a National Championship would certainly be swept under the rug with Ohio State, Georgia, Miami, and Texas A&M on the bottom half of the draw. If you think for a moment that Dan Lanning would not have Oregon ready to run Texas Tech off the field for a shot to get revenge on Indiana, McGuire has been serving up plenty of disappointment for the opposition all season long.
Teams have to score in the playoff, and play great defense. The Raiders had the third-lowest scoring defense in Division I (10.9 points-per-game). The only two teams better were Indiana (10.8) and Ohio State (8.2). They ranked fifth-best in yards allowed per game (254.4), and were fifth-best in the country at 480.3 offensive yards per game. Only Mississippi's 498.1 are better among the 12-team field.
Please let the man finish out his season before you start linking him to the opening at Michigan, or any future openings if dominoes fall for a second coaching carousel after the Michigan job gets filled.
-JC24