It is hard to remember a college football Saturday more chaotic and glorious than the one we just witnessed. Fortunately, Texas Tech stayed out of the mud by dominating Arizona State 53-25.
What's more, the way the national and Big 12 scene shook out whent he dust settled was exactly aligned with the Red Raiders' interests. Of course, that started with all of the carnage in the top 10.
The No. 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 teams all lost, helping Tech move up to No. 5 in the Coaches Poll and No. 8 in the Associated Press Poll. If Tech can continue to win and do so impressively, the Raiders will stay entrenched in the top 10, which will give them some margin for error should the chaos monster bite them at some point in the season.
Of course, Texas Tech fans also saw their petty sides quenched when No. 7 Texas lost at home to an unranked Florida team. That put an extra cherry on top of the sundae for Red Raiders who love to see the Longhorns struggle. Many Tech fans are even reminding Texas fans of what UT head coach Steve Sarkisian said back in May.
""There's a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and threes, we could go undefeated, and they'll probably make the CFP this year," Sarkisian said.
Now, those words are laughable, with Texas having lost two games in a row to unranked teams. What's more, with games remaining against Ole Miss, Missouri, and LSU, it is very possible that Sarkisian's team will miss out on a playoff bid.
The Longhorns' struggles aside, all of the top-10 losses also helped to bunch the field and change the perception of the national scene. Now, the prevailing belief is that the national title race is wide open with no dominant team existing. That's exactly the world that Texas Tech needs to reside in; one in which the narrative is that the playing field has been leveled and even a team from the supposedly lowly Big 12 could win the playoff.
Speaking of the Big 12, BYU's victory over No. 2 Notre Dame was critical for the conference's hopes of placing multiple teams in the College Football Playoff. That is a huge boost for teams like Tech and Utah, as well as BYU. In fact, with all the self-sabotaging that the SEC and Big 10 are engaged in, it isn't out of the question for the Big 12 to have three playoff participants.
Meanwhile, other Big 12 games went the way most Red Raiders would have wanted. No. 20 Houston held off No. 18 Oklahoma State 35-32. That helps boost Tech's resume by making the Red Raiders' Week 3 win over the Cougars more impressive. Houston has jumped to No. 14 in the A.P. poll giving the Red Raiders a top-15 win to point to.
What's more, it would be nice to see Oklahoma State fall out of Big 12 contention before Tech heads to Stillwater in mid-November. Now, OSU has one loss, and if they stumble again before November 14, the significance of their game with Tech could dip drastically. That would serve the Red Raiders well by making the trip to Stillwater (a place where Tech often struggles) less daunting.
It was also in Texas Tech's best interest to see TCU hand Baylor a 17-6 loss in Waco. That's because, before Saturday, the Bears were gaining momentum.
After falling to Auburn by one point in the season opener, Baylor had rattled off four wins in a row, and had they beaten TCU, they could have been in the Big 12 title game race deep into November, given that their next three games are against Kansas, UCF, and Iowa State.
Before losing to the Horned Frogs, Baylor had aspirations of being undefeated in the conference when they embarked on a brutal two-game set at BYU and against Texas Tech in November. While they could theoretically win out and still be a Big 12 factor, most of the wind has left their sails, and it will be tough for head coach Dave Aranda to rally his troops. That means that Baylor's season could be meaningless when Tech heads to Waco on November 21.
As for the Red Raiders' next opponent, Cincinnati, they will head into this week's game licking their wounds. Saturday, they lost a shootout at West Virginia 45-42.
In that contest, the Bearcats didn't trail until the Mountaineers hit the game-winning field goal on the day's final play. That certainly has to sting, and a loss like that can linger for a week or two, which is good news for Tech. Also, the Big 12 did a favor for the Red Raiders by putting this Saturday's game at 11 a.m. Central, which will probably mean that the crowd in Cincinnati will be far less juiced up than it could have been this weekend.
The only Big 12 game of significance that didn't go the Red Raiders' way was Utah's 27-24 win at Colorado. It would have been nice to see the Utes take their first conference loss in upset fashion, and that almost happened as Colorado pushed the Utes to the brink in Boulder.
Still, Utah has a tough schedule to navigate if they want to win the Big 12. They host Houston this weekend and BYU on November 7. Then, they head to Tucson to take on a sneaky-good Arizona team a week later.
Each week, a new chapter of the story unfolds with plot twists and surprises galore. Thankfully, Texas Tech was not part of the drama on Saturday. Now, it will be up to Joey McGuire and his team to stay out of the chaos and continue to let the rest of the nation consume itself.
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