If you ask ESPN’s Football Power Index, it apparently isn’t anywhere near the end of the world with the fact that Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders weren’t able to get a win over Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Right now, Texas Tech still holds the top spot in the Big 12 in the ESPN FPI rankings.
And that feels significant with the way this season is going for folks all over the country. To be completely frank and objective, there just aren’t that many unbeaten teams around at this point in the season. And for the Red Raiders to suffer a loss on the road but to still be given a fair bit of recognition and respect from the computers feels like a good thing.
ESPN FPI college football rankings: The Texas Tech Red Raiders sit at the top of the Big 12 entering week 9
This is what the Big 12 looks like, according to ESPN’s FPI rankings as the Red Raiders get set to face Oklahoma State in week 9:
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (No. 12 overall)
- Utah Utes (No. 16 overall)
- BYU Cougars (No. 19 overall)
- TCU Horned Frogs (No. 28 overall)
- Iowa State Cyclones (No. 32 overall)
- Cincinnati Bearcats (No. 34 overall)
- Kansas Jayhawks (No. 37 overall)
- Kansas State Wildcats (No. 40 overall)
- Arizona State Sun Devils (No. 42 overall)
- Baylor Bears (No. 48 overall)
- UCF Knights (No. 49 overall)
- Arizona Wildcats (No. 50 overall)
- Colorado Buffaloes (No. 52 overall)
- Houston Cougars (No. 59 overall)
- West Virginia Mountaineers (No. 86 overall)
- Oklahoma State Cowboys (No. 121 overall)
Right now, at 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 games, McGuire and the Red Raiders still have a really good shot of continuing on and making it to the conference championship game. All Texas Tech needs to do is get back to winning games.
This week, that shouldn’t be all that difficult. The Oklahoma State Cowboys, the bottom-ranked team in the Big 12, according to FPI (and just about everyone else on earth) will be matching up with the Red Raiders. And right now, Oklahoma State looks pretty pitiful! Texas Tech has a great chance to just get things settled and figure a few things out this week.
And hopefully that all goes smoothly. Because losing to a team as bad as Oklahoma State would likely drop Texas Tech pretty considerably!