At the Net
Texas Tech volleyball is in Arizona for the week, taking on No. 8 Arizona State tonight at 7:00 p.m. and Arizona on Friday.
On the Pitch
I’ve been trying to catch up, but Texas Tech soccer lost to Baylor in penalty kicks (meaning they went to 2 overtimes to get to that point) in the 9th round.
“PKs are a hard way to win, but a brutal way to lose. It’s hard to get through it and be the victor. It’s pretty taxing knowing you tied the game against a team that we feel like over the course of two games we should have won both. But man Baylor doesn’t go away, they played hard and scored a nice goal to give them some life. And there were times when they had us pinned. But we took turns knocking each other down. And in the end when it comes to PKs it’s a coin flip. Faith did her job today, when you save two penalties you should win, but we went to eight or nine penalties which showed how good the teams were.”
They will find out their post-season fate for the NCAA Tournament on November 10th at 3:00 p.m. when the field of 64 is announced.
Post-season awards had Macy Blackburn being named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, with Kylie Bahr, as well as Sam Courtwright, Peyton Parsons and Taylor Zdrojewski on the 1st team and GK Faith Nguyen, D Eleanor Hays and MF/D Molly Skurcenski making the second team. Raleigh Greason was named ot the Big 12 All-Freshman team.
On the Gridiron
Texas Tech football was picked 8th in the first College Football Playoff Rankings. Because I’m running out of time, I really just have time to link as much as I can about it and I’ll let you all run from there.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich: College Football Playoff 2025: Bubble Watch after Week 10
ESPN’s Pete Thamel: Sources: BYU expects RB LJ Martin back vs. Texas Tech
CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford: College Football Playoff Rankings: Ohio State opens at No. 1 over Indiana as Big Ten, SEC dominate top five
ESPN’s Bill Connelly: College football Week 10 recap: How latest results impact playoff tiers
With Georgia Tech’s loss to NC State on Saturday, the Yellow Jackets dropped from Tier 2 to Tier 3, but with a surprisingly comfortable road win over a smoking hot Kansas State, Texas Tech jumped from Tier 3 to 2. I’m curious how the CFP committee might view the Red Raiders, a team with eight wins by at least 23 points and a lone loss coming without starting quarterback Behren Morton. Their strength-of-schedule numbers aren’t very good, but they ace the eye test, and if “best” is supposed to matter over “most deserving,” well, they’re fourth in SP+.
The Athletic’s Joe Drape: Meet the Billionaire Trying to Save College Football From Itself
Mr. Campbell envisions an organization like the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee to replace the N.C.A.A. and make student-athletes “partners not pawns.”
Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said the oilman had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the realities of college sports. The SEC recently signed a 10-year TV deal with ESPN worth a reported $3 billion.
The Big Ten is in the middle of a media rights deal worth more than $7 billion that runs through the 2029-30 school year and has no interest in bundling its media rights with anyone.
The N.C.A.A. also is opposed.
“When you start talking about the Sports Broadcasting Act in such a short time frame with some federal authority overseeing it, oh, boy, that feels to me like the kind of thing that needs a lot more work,” Charlie Baker, its president, said.
In the meantime, Mr. Campbell and his fellow Matadors continue to raise money to help prevent his alma mater from cutting sports, using funds earmarked for academic pursuit or adding student fees.
“We are the haves, not the have-nots,” he said. “We aren’t going anywhere.”