FRISCO, TX – Anyone expecting the weight of added pressure and newfound expectations to crush the upbeat and optimistic vibe from the Texas Tech football team left the first day of Big 12 Media Days disappointed.

Pressure might bust pipes, but it also pumps oil. The money that comes from that oil in West Texas is reshaping the Red Raider football program. And maybe the entire college football hierarchy. 

Texas Tech is hoping to turn black gold into blue blood. Money flowed in and out of the football program all offseason as head coach Joey McGuire and general manager James Blanchard used funds from Cody Campbell – a real-life character that could easily star in “Landman” – to reshape the roster. They signed arguably the top transfer portal class in the country and recently landed a five-star offensive tackle from the high school ranks, beating out Texas and Ohio State. 

Texas Tech won the offseason. It is winning games that’ll count. After all, billionaires don’t become billionaires by accepting poor returns on their investments. McGuire knows it. He didn’t spend Tuesday deflecting questions or shying away from the end goal. 

“We have to be playing in the Big 12 Championship. We need to be playing in the playoffs,” he told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. “That’s the box that’s not checked yet and it is what other people say can’t be done at Texas Tech.”

The ceiling is now the floor for a program that has only one 10-win season since 1976 and no outright conference championships since 1955 as members of the Border Conference. But McGuire has more resources and a better roster than Spike Dykes or Steve Sloan could muster. Even the great Mike Leach couldn’t outduel Texas and Texas A&M on the recruiting trail. Texas Tech is no longer the second fiddle in the band. The Red Raiders can be lead guitar in a wide open Big 12. 

The pecking order in college football was historically determined by how well a program could sign elite high school talent. The better the locker room and the coaching and the stadium, the better the prospect that you could sign. That allowed the Texas’s and Ohio State’s and Alabama’s of the world to run the sport. Those schools signed the unicorns in recruiting, and while not all of them panned out, enough of them did. When those types of schools employed competent coaches, they ran the sport. Simple. 

Revenue sharing and the transfer portal have shaken the status quo. Stockpiling talent is harder than ever. It was worth it for past generations to wait their turn in line at an Alabama or an Ohio State because the only true reward was winning national championships, working out in great facilities, playing in giant stadiums, and potentially reaching the NFL. Not anymore. The addition of cold, hard cash into the mix means that players who would become depth at the blueblood programs can now make more money starting elsewhere.

Texas Tech checks more boxes than ever for elite talent. McGuire is one of the most likeable figures in college football. The Red Raiders are clearly all-in on revenue sharing and NIL, and won’t be outbid for talent, even off the field, illustrated by Blanchard turning down Notre Dame. The facilities received a $250 million facelift. People talk about the location as a negative but Lubbock isn’t the only college town in the middle of nowhere. And now that the players aren’t broke college students, flying parents and loved ones out for games is easier than ever. 

But there is one more box. The trophy case at the Texas Tech football facility isn’t exactly overflowing. And until that is fixed, rival programs can use that in recruiting. 

“You can’t recruit us and say, ‘they don’t have facilities.’ In fact, if you say that your facilities are better than Tech’s, that recruit is going to laugh at you because we have the best facilities in the country,” McGuire said. “We’re sharing at the highest level of revenue share, so we’ve checked that box. Now, it is our job to go win on the field and check that box.”

Maybe Texas Tech can be the next Oregon or Clemson. A team to emerge into a national championship contender. SMU bought its way into the Power Four and reached the College Football Playoff in 2024. But unlike the ACC, Texas Tech doesn’t have goliaths like Clemson or Miami to deal with in the Big 12. Without Texas or Oklahoma, it is a coin-flip league. That’s what makes it exciting. It also leaves it vulnerable to an emerging super power like Texas Tech. 

Maybe. Or maybe not. Texas Tech has to win first and provide a proof on concept or the hype turns into dust, something the folks in the 806 see enough of. The Red Raider faithful wants results. They want trophies. That puts pressure on McGuire, a larger type of pressure that any of his predecessors could imagine. Leach only won 10 or more games one time and never played for a Big 12 championship. That’s the baseline expectation this year and every year moving forward the Campbell & Co. invest at this level. 

“You say pressure, I say opportunity,” McGuire said. “I’d rather be in the position of feeling good about the roster and the team versus somewhere I’m hoping and praying to be bowl eligible. I tell the players, ‘look, you guys go and do your job at the highest level and let me handle the pressure.’”