The five biggest "What ifs" that Texas Tech football fans still ask themselves

What if Texas Tech could have beaten Oklahoma in 2008?

The biggest on-field "What if" that Texas Tech fans have to live with is the thought of what would have happened had Tech beaten Oklahoma in 2008 instead of losing 66-21 in Norman. That remains the most painful loss that most Texas Tech football fans have had to endure.

In the two games prior to the massacre north of the Red River, Tech had beaten No. 1 Texas and No. 9 Oklahoma State. That set up the game in Norman to be an opportunity to win the Big 12 South and play in the conference title game. Unfortunately, OU was coming off of a bye week and was fully prepared for what the Red Raiders brought to the table.

That night on national television, Tech was embarrassed and the South race evantually ended in a three-way tie between the Red Raiders, Longhorns, and Sooners. Because Oklahoma was the highest-ranked team in the now-defunct BCS standings at the end of the regular season, the Sooners got to play in the conference championship game where they destroyed Missouri 62-21.

If Tech would have won that game, would the Red Raiders actually have played for a National Title? It isn't hard to imagine so.

Tech had only to face a terrible Baylor team to close out the regular season. Then, that year, Missouri was just 9-3 overall and not a national contender so it is easy to see how the Red Raiders could have won the Big 12 and had that happened, Tech likely would have played Florida for the National Title.

We will never know how that season would have unfolded, though, because the Red Raiders couldn't pull off a third top-10 win in three weeks. The schedule didn't set up well for the Red Raiders and that led to a slaughtering in Norman. Still, it's as close as Tech has ever come to a National Title in football and it will always leave us wondering, "What if?".