Texas Tech has been in the news a fair bit this offseason. The Red Raiders having such success on the recruiting trail and through the transfer portal and then all of the success with the run in the Women’s College World Series and then there was all of the NIL money.
Texas Tech has caught a lot of attention lately!
And that’s not a bad thing. The Red Raiders have been the focal point of plenty of conversations all summer long. It’s been fun to keep up with. For the most part.
But one thing that stinks is this new conversation that Texas Tech is in the middle of.
With the way the Big 12 has voted to ban items from being thrown onto the field and then penalizing teams, it’s become clear that Texas Tech would be adversely impacted by this at a rate that is likely greater than the rest of the conference.
And that’s led to Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt making it clear that the Red Raiders’ tradition of throwing tortillas isn’t going away.
The Big 12 voted 15-1 to issue 15-yard penalties to teams after a third instance of throwing items on the field.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) August 14, 2025
Texas Tech was the one that voted against—and their athletic director says their tradition of throwing tortillas will not stop. pic.twitter.com/rLU14pl0lq
It’s a strong statement from Hocutt and it’s drawing plenty of attention from around the country.
College football fans react to Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt defending tortilla throwing in light of new Big 12 policy
Here’s how college football fans are reacting:
First they came for the tortillas,
— cooganon (@benterest) August 15, 2025
and I said nothing
because I was not a tortilla.
Free the tortilla
— College Sports Only 🏈🏀⚾️ (@CollegeSportsO) August 15, 2025
Big Tortilla is the one funding all the NIL moneys
— Nicholas Gibson (@Nickgibson1991) August 14, 2025
I, for one, appreciate that folks have a pretty solid sense of humor about all of this (and are also still showing support for the Red Raiders). I feel like we should all embrace and support this sort of, well, support. Let’s get behind that.
Good it’s illegal to throw stuff on the field . Get enough 15 yarders and they’ll stop.
— Blaed Walters (@soonerman147) August 15, 2025
So where does this end up? I love the penalty in spirit, but good luck with enforcement
— Big12 Mafia (@B12Mafia) August 14, 2025
That's all I got
No. Bad. Boooooooooo! I can’t get on board with these.
I’m all for tech being able to keep tradition as long as it doesn’t get in the way of others.
— Austin Hunt (@Superflex441) August 16, 2025
I mean, this is a fair approach, I guess. Measured. Nuanced. Fair.
Big 12 is soft
— trevor ! (@trevorhowell18) August 14, 2025
Big 12 is soft
— Liam Erst (@Lersty07) August 15, 2025
This is certainly accurate.
What is the escalation after 6, 9, 12, 15 etc tortillas get thrown?
— Brian Phillpotts🇺🇦 (@bphillpotts) August 14, 2025
Oh, well, that’s an interesting question. And I would love to know what the actual approach to that will be. And what happens if folks from another fanbase show up pretending to be Texas Tech fans and they start throwing a bunch of tortillas? What do we do with that one?
In so many ways, it feels like this rule wasn’t fully thought through with the way it’ll be implemented. And maybe Texas Tech needs to respond by altering when the tortillas are thrown as part of some sort of compromise? Maybe that becomes a pregame thing? I don’t know. This whole situation stinks. It’d be better if this wasn’t something we had to think about.