Tuesday night, while the Texas Tech basketball team was taking down No. 3 Illinois in Lubbock, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee released its second rankings of the year. As expected, the Texas Tech football team moved up after beating West Virginia; however, the Red Raiders remain on the outside looking in.
Tech checks in at No. 12 this week, which is up three spots from its previous ranking. However, that spot is painful because it is the first team on the outside of the playoff picture.
Though the field is comprised of 12 teams, one spot goes to the top team from one of the Group of 6 conferences. Therefore, only the top 11 teams from the Power 4 conferences earn a chance to play for the National Championship.
Many Red Raiders believe that their team should be ranked ahead of No. 11 Kentucky and No. 10 BYU since Tech is 8-1 while both Kentucky and BYU are 7-2. Tuesday night, committee chairman Hunter Yurachek discussed why Tech remains behind those two teams.
"I mean, Texas Tech, first of all, they got an 8-1 record," he said. "Got a lot of respect from the committee. They benefited from some teams losing above them, the rankings that moved them up three spots. Compared to Kentucky and BYU, Texas Tech strength of schedule, by our metrics, currently 65, Kentucky is 8, and BYU is 24.
"They all three have two quality wins. Texas Tech beat Houston and Arizona. Kentucky has beaten LSU and South Carolina. BYU has beaten Notre Dame and Arizona.
"You look at the losses. Texas Tech's one loss is to a 5-4 Cincinnati team. BYU lost obviously, this past weekend to our No. 2-ranked team in Utah. Also has a loss to UCF. Kentucky has two losses to Alabama, who is ranked third, and Tennessee, who is ranked eighth.
"That's how we compared those teams and came up with BYU at 10, Kentucky at 11, and Texas Tech at 12."
It is clear that the committee is prioritizing strength of schedule over any other metric this year, which is something that is largely out of Texas Tech's hands. Tech has no say over which Big 12 teams show up on the schedule each year. What's more, it is becoming clear that finding quality non-conference games is challenging for the Red Raiders, especially now that most Power 4 teams are playing nine conference games.
The good news is that Tech will see its schedule strength improve this week when the Red Raiders take on Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The Cowboys sit at No. 25 in this week's ranking, meaning a win would give Tech three wins over teams in the week-two CFP rankings.
The other encouraging development for the Red Raiders is that the Big 12 has three of the top 12 teams in this week's rankings. That shows that the conference might be earning more respect from the committee than it initially received.
Utah sits at No. 2 behind only Georgia. They are followed by Alabama, UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas, Miami, Tennessee, Indiana, and BYU.
Meanwhile, Houston checks in at No. 14, while Arizona is at No. 23. That means that the Big 12 has six teams in this week's CFP top 25.
Now, some are theorizing that there is a path for two Big 12 teams to make it into the field. What's more, if Texas Tech wins out and captures the Big 12 title, the conference might even have three teams in the field if BYU wins out and Utah loses to the Red Raiders in the conference championship game.
That will all work itself out in time. What's important, though, is that Tech continues to take care of its business each week. Even if the wins are close, each game that Tech can put on the positive side of the ledger will help increase the chances of a return to the playoff field.
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