Big-time boosters transformed Texas Tech, but that's not all it took to reach CFP
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Justin Williams
Texas Tech leaned into becoming an oil-rich disruptor — and invested wisely. Now, it plays the most consequential game in program history.
Texas Tech has played the role of disruptor before, but not like this.
The Red Raiders won their first outright conference title since 1955, barnstorming through the Big 12 to a program-record 12 wins and No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff, earning a first-round bye. They face No. 5 Oregon in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day in what will be the most consequential game in program history.
“Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl, that’s pretty surreal,” said head coach Joey McGuire.
It’s a cut above the early 2000s, when the program had a sword-swinging, Air Raid resurgence under head coach Mike Leach. Those fan-favorite Tech teams put up points in bunches and climbed as high as No. 2 in the country in 2008. Despite punching up at the likes of Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the Big 12, they never fully broke through to the top.
This year’s Tech is a bully. An oil-rich bully, specifically, with an influx of donor support led by university board chair and megabooster Cody Campbell, a former offensive lineman under Leach who’s now a billionaire and benefactor. (He was there on the podium after the Big 12 championship victory, wiping away tears.) The liquid-gold finances have been the storyline for a Texas Tech program that poured $25 million into its depth chart and wasn’t shy about it.
Money can’t buy happiness, but it buys a heckuva roster.
Everybody spends money in today’s college football, though. The top teams spent north of $20 million this season between NIL and revenue sharing, with dozens of others over $10 million. Most of them still didn’t reach the Playoff. Some didn’t even make a bowl game.
Texas Tech bought in and leaned into the narrative, confident it would pay off.
It did.
Timing and resources
Campbell has become the face of Tech’s fortune, and for good reason. He’s not alone, though.
The university’s Lubbock campus is located in the West Texas region known as the Permian Basin, the largest oil-producing field in America — and it’s been good for the Red Raiders. This past offseason, Campbell, his business partner and former teammate John Sellers and fellow energy magnate and booster Gary Petersen committed to front-loading a generous NIL budget for Tech football before the new $20.5 million revenue-sharing allotment kicked in, allowing the team to double-dip the roster payments in a sense.
“Whatever it costs, we’ll cover it. So the money was there,” Campbell told The Athletic.
There was even more than they realized. As word of this push spread among the donor base, others chipped in, resulting in a total of 3,500 contributors to the Matador Club NIL collective, with a dozen writing seven-figure checks. Between NIL and revenue share payments, Texas Tech intends to distribute $55 million to its athletes across all athletic programs for the 2025-26 academic year.
“It was very much a community effort on the donor side,” Campbell added.
Texas Tech’s deep coffers have also allowed it to bridge the old and new arms races in college football. Pre-NIL, spending was all about facilities and amenities, which have become less of a priority in light of direct player payments. Tech manages to offer both. In March, the program opened the new Dustin R. Womble Football Center, a $242 million, state-of-the-art practice and training facility connected to the South End Zone of Jones AT&T Stadium.
The largest contiguous football facility in the country, which Tech broke ground on in 2022, is named after another prominent donor, who made his fortune in the software industry, and whose name also adorns the basketball training facility. Even in this new era, that type of ambiance still resonates.
“I committed to Tech pretty early (this offseason),” said starting safety Cole Wisniewski, who transferred from North Dakota State. “It was my first visit, and I canceled the rest. I wanted to go somewhere that I could reach my highest potential. Coming here, talking to the coaching staff, seeing the facilities, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t have available to me.”
There are similar stories at places like Texas A&M and SMU, where oil money has helped build competitive and attractive destinations. Oregon has long benefited from its relationship with Phil Knight and Nike. At places like Ohio State, Georgia and Alabama, it’s a different formula with similar results: Big state schools + history + passionate fan base = revenue and resources. The list goes on.
As the new rich kid on the block, Texas Tech had to overpay and sell the sizzle to compensate. But the money matters only if it’s invested wisely.
Portal approach
Tech had the means to entice or retain just about any player it wanted this offseason. The challenge, as always, was prioritizing the right ones, especially in the portal.
“The obvious concern was, if you bring in a bunch of transfers, it’s just a bunch of mercenaries who are there for the money. That won’t work,” said Campbell. “You need people who have talent, but who are also unselfish and willing to play for their teammates. We really vetted the character of the individuals we brought in.”
Texas Tech only signed players it had some level of connection to, whether through high school coaches, family connections or assistants at previous programs. It was part of a multi-layered recruiting assessment helmed by McGuire.
Joey McGuire coached Texas high school football for 20 years before moving to the college ranks. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
It started with identifying positions of need and then homing in on available prospects. Recruiting staff, led by general manager James Blanchard and position coaches, built player evaluations. Tech also used advanced analytics and metrics, as well as character aspects.
Sometimes, each layer would land on the same player for a certain position, making for an easy choice and aggressive recruiting pitch. McGuire points to defensive tackle Lee Hunter. One of the top-rated interior defensive linemen in the portal this offseason, the film, analytics, past production and personal assessments yielded all green lights on a supremely talented player who was also a mature, veteran leader, happy to sacrifice his own stats in order to occupy blockers and free up his teammates.
“It’s a lot easier to play linebacker when you have Lee Hunter in front of you,” said All-American Jacob Rodriguez, who finished fifth in Heisman voting and won a slew of major defensive awards.
Other decisions weren’t as straightforward. Campbell mentioned one unnamed player for whom the advanced analytics were low, but who checked every other box. McGuire considered each data point and trusted their instinct, believing the positives outweighed the risks. The player turned out to be a key starter for the Red Raiders.
The process delivered a 21-player transfer class that was one of the top-graded hauls of the offseason, according to the recruiting sites.
That same approach applied to player retention. Texas Tech assessed the quarterback transfer market this offseason, but elected to stick with returning starter Behren Morton, a fifth-year senior who was born in Lubbock and grew up in Texas. Despite an injury history and shoulder surgery that would keep him sidelined until summer, McGuire and his staff believed a healthy Morton gave the team its best chance to be successful in 2025, on the field and off.
“When coach McGuire took the job four years ago, he asked me to trust him. And from that point on, I have,” said Morton. “He told me we were going to bring in a bunch of guys through the portal, and he wanted me to get the guys around each other, help build a special bond.”
Results
The system worked.
All 12 of the Red Raiders’ wins this season were by at least 22 points, with their only loss coming on the road at Arizona State when Morton was out due to injury. (Tech ranked 8th in Strength of Record and 54th in Strength of Schedule, according to The Athletic’s metrics.) The offense has 90 plays of 20-plus yards, more than any FBS team. The defense is third in the country in yards per play allowed, harassing opposing quarterbacks for 39 sacks. It’s a complete, balanced team that never folded to adversity or took its foot off the gas.
Portal additions have played a starring role. Texas Tech made a concerted effort to beef up the offensive and defensive lines, recognizing that the trenches tend to separate elite teams from everyone else.
The team spent $7 million on the defensive line alone — a big number, for sure, but tough to contextualize since most teams keep mum on roster financials. The headliners include Hunter and fellow tackles Skyler Gill-Howard and A.J. Holmes Jr., along with heat-seeking edge rushers David Bailey and Romello Height. Hunter, Bailey and Height each earned first-team All-Big 12 honors, and Bailey is second in the FBS with 13.5 sacks. On offense, newcomers Howard Sampson (left tackle) and Will Jados (left guard) have started all 13 games.
“I learned a long time ago that it’s all about the players, and I’m a better coach with better players,” said McGuire.
The head coach’s own influence included shepherding a team with 40 new players on the roster — a number of them highly touted and highly paid — and a mountain of expectations, all while a mob of critics gathered outside the gates.
“Coach McGuire has done a great job of handling that,” said Morton. “We all hear about how much money we’re paying players and all that. But we’re trying to win football games, and we knew what kind of a football team we could be.”
McGuire helped channel all the pressure and attention into an emotional Big 12 championship run, along with a clear message for anyone still doubting the Red Raiders.
“Everybody wants to talk about the money,” said athletic director Kirby Hocutt. “The real story is the infrastructure that Joey has created within our program.”
What’s next?
The Red Raiders are capable of winning the national title this season. They could also lose to a supremely talented and similarly well-funded Oregon team on Jan. 1.
Regardless of what happens in the CFP, fans and stakeholders are bullish on the program’s future. Texas Tech is poised to be a Big 12 force, and even if new revenue-sharing regulations add some guardrails to the NIL landscape (unlikely), the broader funding and resources should help keep Tech competitive.
Texas Tech has a straw, and it will drink your milkshake.
“We’re not done. This is a long-term process,” said Campbell. “We’ve set it up to have the resources. The strategy has evolved, but fundamentally, it remains the same. Hopefully, this will be the era of Texas Tech in the Big 12.”
