Given the way the Texas Tech Red Raiders lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils a few weeks back, there are some that happen to believe that Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech football team won’t have a shot at making it to the College Football Playoff this season.
But after Week 9 of the 2025 Texas Tech football season, you can go ahead and count Bryan Fischer of Sports Illustrated among those that happen to still be on board with the thought of the Red Raiders competing in the College Football Playoff in a few weeks.
According to Fischer, the Red Raiders have a shot of getting through the jumbled mess that is the Big 12 this season and representing the conference in the College Football Playoff. As Fischer noted, he gave the Red Raiders the spot in the College Football Playoff with the following logic: “Texas Tech gets the nod over BYU by virtue of hosting the Cougars in Lubbock in two weeks.”
And I think just about everyone in West Texas would like to see that play out that way. Of course, Fischer does note that Cincinnati and Houston can still pose problems for the Red Raiders and their hopes of making it into the Big 12 championship game and also the College Football Playoff.
Sports Illustrated College Football Playoff projection after Week 9 has Texas Tech facing off against the Miami Hurricanes out of the ACC
But, let’s assume TTU makes it through all of this and into the College Football Playoff. Once there, Fischer has the Red Raiders in a fun spot.
Fischer puts Texas Tech in as the No. 11 seed, which matches the Red Raiders up with the Miami Hurricanes who are seeded at No. 6 here. The winner of that hypothetical matchup would then meet up with the No. 3 Indiana Hoosiers in the quarterfinals.
I think it’s a lot of fun to see Texas Tech meet up with the Miami Hurricanes. And while I don’t know if these two teams will match up, I’ve seen multiple instances of the Red Raiders being slotted against Miami to compete at some point in the offseason.
That could be in the Pop-Tarts bowl. It could be in the College Football Playoff. I’m not a fortune teller, I don’t know what exactly will happen there, but I do love the thought of this matchup playing out at some point somewhere. And I like that.