How Texas Tech fared against Big 12 rivals in 2018-19 academic year
The 2018-19 Texas Tech athletic season has come to an end so let’s take a look at how the Red Raiders fared against their Big 12 rivals in the three major men’s sports.
The 2018-19 athletic season will be one that Texas Tech fans are certain to remember for quite some time. That’s because the Red Raiders had unprecedented success as an athletic department this year helping to move the athletic program towards the upper echelon in not only the Big 12 but the entire NCAA.
Of course, the major accomplishment for the school this year was the men’s track and field outdoor national title. Since 2000, head coach Wes Kittley has been building his program into a national contender and after some disappointing results in the national meet in past years, his team finally broke through and brought home the program’s first national title.
In fact, it was the first men’s national title in school history regardless of sport and joined the 1993 Lady Raider basketball national title as the only two national championships in school history. But that was not the only hardware brought back to Lubbock this year.
Tech won four Big 12 titles this spring with Kittley’s men capturing the indoor and outdoor conference crowns to go along with regular season conference titles from the men’s basketball team and the baseball team. And of course, the basketball and baseball titles were just the precursor to a pair of historic postseason runs.
Chris Beard’s basketball team not only became the fist team in program history to reach the Final Four, it came within an eyelash of capturing the national title. And Tim Tadlock’s baseball team also finished in the final four of the College World Series, the deepest the Red Raiders have ever gone in Omaha.
As for how Tech fared out of conference, it was also a great year. Overall, Tech went 56-12 in theses three sports against non Big 12 teams. Against Power 5 programs, the Red Raiders put up a 16-8 mark that included a 5-1 record against the SEC, a 6-3 record against the Big 10, a 4-1 record against the PAC 12 and a 1-3 record against the ACC.
Still, the most important games are those against Big 12 foes and in 2018-19, the Red Raiders managed to go 38-22 combined in conference football, men’s basketball and baseball contests. That included winning records against five schools. What’s more, only two Big 12 schools got the better of the Red Raiders in this academic year. Here is a breakdown of how Texas Tech fared against each Big 12 rival and a look at what those records might suggest about the state of Red Raider athletics as compared to their primary competitors.