ESPN video proves Texas Tech now moves the needle in college football

For years, all Texas Tech football fans wanted was for the national media to acknowledge our team's existence. Now, after just one season of going all-in as a program, Tech is not only being recognized in the sport but is one of the teams driving the conversation. That reality was underscored again on Saturday when the Red Raiders were featured in ESPN's college football promotional video.

In what has become an annual tradition that signals the start of the season, the network that dominates the college football discussion posted a video full of quick edits and short clips set to the song "High Noon" by Shaboozey. As you can expect, most of the teams featured were from the SEC (because that's the conference ESPN is in bed with) and the Big Ten.

However, the Red Raiders appear twice in the 40-second video. The first is a clip of star linebacker Ben Roberts making his one-handed interception in last season's Big 12 Championship Game. The other is a clip of head coach Joey McGuire getting a celebratory Gatorade bath following that contest.

In all, only three Big 12 teams are shown in the video. At the beginning, there is a clip of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, and later, there is a shot of BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier hurdling a defender. While not every team in the video is a national contender (Utah State makes an appearance, for instance), to be featured in the video is a sign that your team is making some noise on the national scene, and for Texas Tech, that's exactly what fans have been waiting for.

Texas Tech football is no longer an afterthought nationally

For most of the program's existence, Texas Tech has only made national news by upsetting traditional powers like Texas, Oklahoma, or Nebraska. Sometimes, Tech might do something unheard of, like pulling off a 31-point second-half comeback to win the 2006 Insight Bowl against Minnesota, and that would garner national attention for a moment, but by the time the next season came around, only people in West Texas or the Big 12 were thinking about the Red Raiders.

Even the best Mike Leach teams had trouble carrying over publicity from one season to the next. Those teams never could shake the label of the plucky underdog in their own conference, much less on the national scene, so people only talked about Tech because of Leach's quirky personality.

The attention Tech is getting in 2026 feels different. Sure, much of the talk about the Red Raiders has centered on their controversial offseason. However, embracing the role of the villain might be a great thing in the end.

Tech has tried to be the lovable upstart program from the badlands of West Texas, and that identity only carried the program so far. Now, McGuire's program is at the forefront of the college football conversation, and though it may be for rubbing people the wrong way, what matters most is that Tech is relevant.

That relevance comes not just from Tech trying to blaze a new trail. It also comes because everyone nationally is being forced to admit that this once-forgotten program has built itself into an annual playoff contender and the dominant force in the Big 12. And naturally, when a team with little pedigree tries to upset the sport's status quo, it will ruffle quite a few feathers.

As a result, the national conversation must include the Red Raiders, even if most people are now viewing Tech as a team to root against. In the trailer for the upcoming Paramount+ documentary series on the Red Raiders (titled "The Program"), McGuire is shown telling his team that they are the most hated team in America. Then, he says, he loves it.

Texas Tech fans should love it too, because after years of fighting tooth and nail for any type of recognition, our program is now an essential part of the national story. Even the SEC-biased entity of ESPN has Texas Tech on the tip of its tongue to start the season.

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