Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire challenges Brian Kelly, LSU to schedule home-and-home series amid playoff debate
The university football power conferences are in a arms race, and LSU coach Brian Kelly said this offseason earlier than, in order to recover as a pre-eminent league for sport, the dry should obtain a planning alliance with the Big Ten to train annual non-conference match agreements. These two leagues are at the driver’s headquarters with regard to the participation of the playoffs of university football and the claims of the national championship, but the other conferences continue to fight for a seat at the table. And to defend Big 12, Texas Technology Coach Joey McGuire called Kelly and Tigers and challenged them in a home series.
The disparity between the conferences is also at the forefront of the CFP expansion conversation while the stakeholders debate the format to adopt for the 2026 qualifying series, when a new agreement on media rights comes into force. Automatic offers are at the center of the conversation while conferences are fighting to position themselves in the structure of university football power. To this end, McGuire says that conferences should “decide on the ground”.
“We are sitting here to talk about the playoffs; if you win the conference, you should be in the playoffs,” said McGuire during the Big 12 Media Days. “This is one of the offers … where we suddenly have cross conference matches that we play each other. I think it would be a great way to do it. I saw Brian Kelly say that he was going to play a Big Ten team. Hey, guy, I would like to play LSU. A series at home.
The coaches of this offseason warned that the marquee non-conference matches could pass if the teams lacked insurance in the playoff race. In other words, they will cut difficult opponents at future times in order to minimize the risk of losses if the automatic offers are not in place. Ohio State coach Ryan Day said as much before the 2025 season is opened against Texas, which has a pair of contenders in the national title against each other as soon as the door is released.
McGuire, however, took up the challenge head -on. Rather than fleeing high caliber opponents and opening a more manageable road to the playoffs, the Texas Tech coach welcomed the opportunity for his team to prove himself against the best.
Texas Tech could be well placed to do it in the years to come, and he projects himself as one of the faces of the Big 12 this season. A potentially revolutionary increase in investment has led the Red Raiders to make one of the best seasons of any team in the country with its enormous transfer transport, and the Megabooster Cody Campbell seems ready to carry out the program in the zero era and sharing income as a major player from a financial point of view.
