Ratings from Texas Tech's win over Houston show America is fascinated by the Red Raiders

There is no denying that the Texas Tech football program moves the needle with college football fans. Love them or hate them, the Red Raiders draw eyeballs to the screen, and the ratings from last week's showdown with Houston are proof.

Tech's 28-26 win over the Cougars was featured on FOX, where it drew an average of over 3 million viewers. What's more, it peaked at over 4 million viewers, a huge number for a Friday night game.

To put that in perspective, that number is a 31% increase from the average FOX Friday night game's ratings a season ago. In other words, Texas Tech is generating quite a bit of interest around the nation.

Texas Tech is the Big 12's biggest draw

For years, Texas Tech was a plucky underdog in the Big 12 that only drew national attention after an upset of Texas or Oklahoma. Now, though, the Red Raiders are the biggest draw in the conference.

There is no question that people tuned in last week to see head coach Joey McGuire and his team. Houston doesn't have the cache to draw that type of audience on a Friday night.

Rather, many people probably turned on the game to see if the Red Raiders might stumble against a ranked opponent. Frankly, most fans around the country were likely rooting for that outcome.

That's just fine. Just like every good story needs an antagonist, every conference needs a villain to make things interesting, and if that's the role Tech needs to play, then Red Raider fans should embrace it.

After all, this conference desperately needs a program with some juice to it. The other conference title contenders aren't going to move the needle much. BYU is a very good team, but the Cougars don't provide much in the way of storylines, making them less of a draw nationally. Likewise, Utah, Houston, Kansas State, etc. elicit as much emotion from national fans as toast does at the breakfast table.

Tech has stepped into the Big 12 hatred void left by Texas and Oklahoma and found it to be a natural fit. Of course, to be hated is a compliment because only the teams that win draw the ire of opposing fans.

The Red Raiders will be the conference's biggest draw as long as they are in the mix for the league crown and as long as they continue to threaten the college football status quo. Though they play at 11 am Central this week against Sam Houston, they will be back in prime time on October 3 when they travel to Colorado. Though the Buffaloes' head coach, Deion Sanders, is always an intriguing figure, his team is likely to be irrelevant again this year, so it is easy to see that Tech is the reason for that game's placement in another marquee FOX window.

This is what Texas Tech fans have always longed for: to be noticed across the nation as more than just a team capable of pulling off the occasional upset. Regardless of whether the Red Raiders are everyone's favorite, the program now draws eyeballs, and that's what's most important. Besides, the role of the villain is perfect for Texas Tech. After all, wearing the black hat is something the Masked Rider is accustomed to.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow