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Texas Tech football: Breaking down the Red Raiders’ 2020 schedule

By Matthew Conner

TUCSON, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 14: Quarterback Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders warms up before the start of the NCAAF game against the Arizona Wildcats at Arizona Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
TUCSON, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 14: Quarterback Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders warms up before the start of the NCAAF game against the Arizona Wildcats at Arizona Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

There is still an opening to fill in week two

When was the last time we saw a major college football team release a schedule with “TBA” on it?  That’s what is most strange about the schedule Tech released next year as there is still an opponent to be scheduled for the week-two home opener.

After going to UTEP to kick off the season, Tech will return home for the always highly-anticipated Jones Stadium opener.  While we don’t know what team will provide the opposition, we can be certain that it will be an FCS sacrificial lamb.

Tech has taken on a team from the second-tier of NCAA football every year since 2005.  Fortunately, the Red Raiders have avoided falling victim to an upset in these games unlike so many of their FBS brtehren.

For what’s its worth, many fans (myself included) would rather see Tech stop playing these games against lower-division teams coming to Lubbock willing to take a 40-point beating for the sake of a paycheck that will fund their program’s operating budget for the year.  Tech could certainly find some FBS opponents that pose little threat but would still provide the fan base with some sense of intrigue but then again, there really wasn’t much difference in FCS foe Montana State and FBS opponent UTEP this year.

At least this game is going to be easy to market, regardless of who the opponent is because it is the home opener.  The last time Tech began the home schedule with a team that wasn’t from the FCS was in 2010 when Tommy Tuberville’s first team beat SMU 35-27 in a game played on one of the hottest days in the history of the program.  That was the day that the stadium ran out of bottled water and numerous fans suffered heat-related medical problems.

We know that the 2020 season will mark the 10th-straight year that Tech will begin its home schedule with a blood-letting of a hapless FCS foe.  What foe that is, we don’t know just yet; not will it make any difference.

To being the home slate next year, fans will come to see the Goin’ Band, the Masked Rider, and all the other pageantry.  Whether the name on the schedule says Northwest Siberia State or East-Central Ethiopia A&M, or Cavazos Jr. High will make no difference. We’ll be there.

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