Every story needs villains. In 2026, Texas Tech and LSU appear destined to play that role in the college football narrative.
Tech was already being criticized and despised around the nation for trying to upset the status quo in the sport by spending heavily on its roster, and then came the university's decision to stand by former quarterback Brendan Sorsby as he fought in court to maintain his eligibility after being suspended by the NCAA for gambling on college football.
Not to be outdone, though, LSU is now rubbing everyone in the sport the wrong way thanks to a different legal battle. The Tigers have openly recruited and signed players to their roster who were on NFL rosters during NFL training camps.
Just like the thought of allowing Sorsby to play after it was revealed that he bet on Indiana games when he was a backup QB for the Hoosiers supposedly threatened the fabric and integrity of college football, so too does the notion of allowing players to return to the college ranks after dipping their toes in the NFL waters.
In fact, LSU's stance on this issue has angered some high-ranking government officials in SEC country. One such rankled leader is Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
According to an ESPN.com piece by Mark Schlabach and Pete Thamel, Carr "is encouraging SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to take 'all measures available,' including suspending and/or removing LSU from the conference, if the Tigers elect to roster former NFL players this season."
Schlabach and Thamel report that Carr's letter to Sankey included threats of legal action against the SEC and LSU if professional players are indeed allowed to play for the Tigers in 2026. Does that sound familiar?
When Tech was standing by Sorsby this summer, schools around the nation threatened to boycott playing the Red Raiders in any sport. What's more, the Big 12 threatened to take legal action to sanction Texas Tech if Sorsby played this fall.
Just like Carr getting involved in the LSU debacle, in June it was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who tried to throw his weight around. He warned the Big 12 that action taken against Tech would violate Texas law and could bring about a penalty in the neighborhood of $200 million.
With so much money being spent on and generated by college athletics, and specifically college football, it should come as no surprise that politicians and the legal system are now more inclined than ever to inject themselves into the off-field workings of NCAA athletics.
What's been fascinating, though, is to see just how swift the public backlash has been toward both Texas Tech and LSU. Fortunately for Tech, though, the Tigers are now the face of evil in the sport.
Texas Tech has taken a back seat to LSU in the competition to be college football's most despised program
The difference between Texas Tech's handling of the Sorsby situation and LSU's stance on employing former NFL players is that, so far, LSU has not backed down. At least the Red Raiders and Sorsby came to an agreement that he would drop his lawsuit against the NCAA and not play in 2026. That took the heat on the Tech program down several notches.
It will be fascinating to see if LSU stands its ground now that high-profile politicians are threatening to try to remove the school from one of the two most prestigious and lucrative conferences in the sport. If the nuclear option were exercised and LSU were kicked out of the SEC, the impact on the sport would be felt far and wide and for generations to come.
The other difference between Tech and LSU is that the face of each program is viewed in a vastly different way on the national stage. There couldn't be a much bigger gap between the personalities and reputations of Joey McGuire and LSU's head coach, Lane Kiffin.
Though McGuire took some heat for staunchly standing by Sorsby, he remains a likeable figure in the sport (though he is not afraid to embrace the villain role when it serves his purpose). Meanwhile, the brash, controversial, outspoken, and edgy Kiffin still rubs fans across the nation the wrong way, as he's done his entire coaching career.
All the way back in 2009, when he was just 33, the then-head coach of Tennessee accused rival Florida of recruiting violations, accusations that were eventually proven false. In 2013, he angered USC brass so much that he was fired at the airport following a blowout loss to Arizona State.
In 2017, after being late to several team meetings and events in the days leading up to the National Championship Game, he was relieved of his duties as an Alabama assistant coach. Then, last season, he left his job as head coach at Ole Miss to take the job at LSU despite the fact that Ole Miss was in the College Football Playoff.
There are a lot of reasons for people to hate Lane Kiffin. What's more, it's taken him less than a year in Baton Rouge to make his new school into the poster child for everything that is wrong with college football.
Thankfully, McGuire and Texas Tech have a long way to go before they get to LSU's level as a college football villain. However, had the Red Raiders doubled down on Sorsby instead of letting cooler heads prevail, they could be in the same position the Tigers are in as the team everyone in America loves to hate.
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