Proof that Texas Tech is set to dominate the Big 12 for the foreseeable future

Everyone knows that Texas Tech football has emerged as a dominant force in the new landscape of the Big12. However, some outside of the Red Raider family are still skeptical about the program's staying power. A recent graphic posted to social media by Rivals.com should put those questions to rest.

On X, Rivals, one of the leading recruit ranking services in the nation, posted a chart showing the top ten 2027 recruits headed to the Big 12. Nine of those players are committed to Texas Tech.

In fact, you have to go all the way to the eighth player on the list, Houston commit Raiden Cook, to find a player who isn't headed to Lubbock. That's a reminder that Texas Tech's recent success won't be just a flash in the pan.

The class of 2027 team rankings are taking shape, and Tech is in a position to have the highest-ranked high school class in program history. The Red Raiders check in at No. 9 nationally. Meanwhile, the closest Big 12 rival is Kansas State at No. 34.

However, class rankings can be a deceiving measure of the talent a program is bringing in. The way most sites score and rank classes is heavily influenced by the number of players in the class.

Programs with larger classes usually rank higher. However, Texas Tech has only 17 players committed for 2027. By contrast, Kansas State has 27 high school players in its current class. Yet, Tech still sits 25 spots higher than the Wildcats.

What's more, Tech has the smallest recruiting class of any of the top nine classes in the Rivals rankings. On the other hand, the Red Raiders' average ranking per recruit is 91.4, the fifth-best in the country.

We must also remember that Tech's 2027 recruiting class should have included five-star edge rusher LaDamion Guyton from Georgia. Once touted as the top player in America in the class of 2027, he graduated high school early and has foregone his senior year to join the Red Raiders for the upcoming season. But despite no longer having Guyton in the 2027 recruiting haul, Tech is still dominating the Big 12.

Texas Tech has two five-star recruits set to join the program after this season. One is the nation's top overall recruit, Jalen Brewster, a defensive tackle from Cedar Hill, Texas. The second five-star coming to the South Plains is Anthony Sweeney, an edge rusher from Maryland. He's the No. 16 overall recruit in his class.

Texas Tech also has ten four-star players in the class of 2027. That's as many as Kansas State, Houston, TCU, Utah, BYU, and Arizona have between them.

Texas Tech is positioned to be the Big 12's dominant force for the long haul

In college sports, it is easier to have one breakout season than to have a run of sustained success. That is the challenge the Red Raiders are embarking on.

Fans may lose perspective given the success Tech had in 2025 and the recruiting dominance of the past two cycles. However, we have to remember that this program is just in the infancy of the era in which it is trying to become a yearly national contender.

It was less than two years ago that Tech fans were frustrated by a double-digit home loss to Colorado, one that eventually kept the Red Raiders out of the Big 12 Championship Game. After that defeat, booster Cody Campbell famously responded, "I will" to a fan who reached out to him on X demanding that Tech buy a better offensive line.

In the months that followed, Campbell and the rest of the big-time Texas Tech boosters invested in more than an offensive line. They revamped the entire roster by bringing in the nation's top transfer class. That was the foundation for last season's Big 12 title, with newcomers like David Bailey, Romello Height, Lee Hunter, AJ Holmes, and Bryce Pollock transforming the defense in one offseason.

However, head coach Joey McGuire has high school football roots that run deep. Therefore, it is no surprise that he is going to continue to prioritize that area of recruiting as he builds his program into a yearly contender on the national stage.

That commitment to the prep ranks is evident in the class of 2027. Tech has scoured the nation to bring in high school talent from Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana. What's more, the Red Raiders have gone international to bring in offensive tackle Zarius Matavo from the NFL Academy in Melbourne, Australia, and edge rusher Adeola Werner from the NFL Academy in London, England.

While the rest of the Big 12 is jogging at a steady pace, Texas Tech is sprinting toward national relevance and lapping the field in the process. Maybe that's why BYU head coach Kalani Sitake recently made a public plea for more investment from his program's boosters.

If Texas Tech's biggest threat in the Big 12, BYU, knows that it is falling far behind the Red Raiders in the conference arms race, then that says quite a bit about the state of the conference. Fortunately, the future of the league appears to be nothing but scarlet and black.

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