The college football power conferences are in an arms race, and LSU coach Brian Kelly said earlier this offseason that, in an effort to re-establish itself as the sport’s preeminent league, the SEC should secure a scheduling alliance with the Big Ten to form annual nonconference game agreements. Those two leagues are in the driver’s seat with regard to College Football Playoff participation and national championship contention, but the other conferences continue to fight for a seat at the table. And in defense of the Big 12, Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire called out Kelly and the Tigers and challenged them to a home-and-home series.
The disparity between conferences is also at the forefront of the CFP expansion conversation as stakeholders debate which format to adopt for the 2026 postseason, when a new media rights deal takes effect. Automatic bids are at the center of the conversation as conferences battle for position in the college football power structure. To that end, McGuire says conferences ought to “decide it on the field.”
“We’re sitting here talking about the playoffs; if you win the conference, you should be in the playoff,” McGuire said at Big 12 Media Days. “It’s one of the deals … where we all of the sudden now have cross-conference games that we’re playing each other. I think that would be a great way to do it. I saw Brian Kelly say he’d love to play a Big Ten team. Hey, man, I would love to play LSU. A home-and-home series. Whoever plays that, then we look at the rankings and everything like that.”
Coaches this offseason warned that marquee nonconference games could go by the wayside if teams lack assurances in the playoff race. That is, they will axe challenging opponents from future schedules in an effort to minimize the risk for losses if automatic bids are not in place. Ohio State coach Ryan Day said as much ahead of the 2025 season-opener against Texas, which pits a pair of national title contenders against each other right out of the gate.
McGuire, though, embraced the challenge head-on. Rather than to run from high-caliber opponents and pave a more manageable road to the playoff, the Texas Tech coach welcomed the opportunity for his team to prove itself against the best.
Texas Tech could be well positioned to do so in the years to come, and it projects as one of the faces of the Big 12 this season. A potentially game-changing surge in investment led the Red Raiders to achieve one of the best offseasons of any team in the nation with their tremendous transfer portal haul, and megabooster Cody Campbell appears poised to lead the program into the NIL and revenue-sharing era as a major player from a financial perspective.
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