As Joey McGuire and his Texas Tech Red Raiders prepare for the 2025 season, it’s hard establishing expectations for what this team should be able to accomplish this season. With the roster improvements and the additions of two young and brilliant coordinators, it’s not totally clear just yet if the Red Raiders are ready to contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff.
And if you check in with the folks over at CBS Sports, you’ll see that they’re not ready to put the Red Raiders in the College Football Playoffs as part of their (very, very early) 2025 preseason bowl projections.
Instead, they’ve got Texas Tech meeting up with another team from Texas in a game that gets a ton of attention, but likely won’t be seen as a destination that TTU fans want their team to be in.
We’re talking, of course, about the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Preseason college football bowl projections have Joey McGuire, Texas Tech Red Raiders out of the College Football Playoffs
That’s right, the Pop-Tarts Bowl down in Orlando, Florida, which will put the Red Raiders in a matchup against a team from the ACC. Like Rhett Lashlee’s SMU Mustangs. Because if you’re going to have a Texas Tech vs. SMU matchup, Orlando is the most natural place for these two teams from the Lone Star State to meet up.
It’s fine, it’s just a little odd. I, for one, would welcome this matchup being a regular season sort of game.
Anyway, while the Pop-Tarts Bowl would be a fine destination, there’s no way that is where Texas Tech will want to be (or likely expects itself to be) by the time the college football postseason rolls around.
That said, this could certainly be where TTU finds itself during bowl season. Last year, Iowa State made it into the Pop-Tarts Bowl with a 10 win regular season. The year prior, Kansas State got in with eight wins in the regular season.
So, maybe Texas Tech fans will see firsthand what sort of shenanigans the giant Pop-Tart mascots can prepare this season. Or maybe we can enjoy that from our couches while the Red Raiders are in the playoffs? That’d be preferable.