Texas Tech Football: Texas Tech lands No. 4 seed, trip to Orange Bowl

Texas Tech will make its first appearance in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day as the Big 12 champion Red Raiders were announced Sunday as the No. 4 seed in the final College Football Playoff rankings.

The Red Raiders will receive a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff and await the winner of the 5/12 matchup between No. 5 Oregon and No. 12 James Madison. Oregon (11-1) was an at-large selection into the College Football Playoff and will host James Madison (12-1), the champion of the Sun Belt Conference, in the opening round at a date and time to be determined later this afternoon.

Kickoff between the winner of that game and the Red Raiders is slated for 11 a.m. CT on Jan. 1 from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Hard Rock Stadium is also the site of this year’s CFP National Championship Game, which pits the winner of the semifinal matchups at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly: College Football Playoff 2025: How each team could win the national title – Go read the whole thing

Why they will win it all: They have the best front six in the country. Jacob Rodriguez is the best linebacker in the nation. Fellow linebacker Ben Roberts (two interceptions and a pass breakup) was the Big 12 championship game’s MVP. David Bailey is second in the nation in sacks and third in TFLs. Romello Height is 16th in sacks. And despite losing Skyler Gill-Howard to a midseason injury, tackles Lee Hunter and Anthony Holmes Jr. have prevented any semblance of a drop-off in the middle.

CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah: Notre Dame falling behind Miami, Ohio State over Georgia among College Football Playoff snubs, surprises – Jeyarajah has the correct thought regarding the committee. They are inconsistent and I am fine removing the humans from the process. And this isn’t about whether or not Notre Dame was deserving, it is the inconsistent logic or lack of explanation from the committee.

Heading into the final week of the regular season, Notre Dame rested comfortably multiple spots ahead of Miami, even outranking Alabama. Then, the Crimson Tide suddenly moved up a spot after a mediocre performance against 5-7 Auburn. And now, after not even playing on conference championship Saturday, the committee inexplicably decided to jump Miami two spots over Notre Dame.

Granted, Miami had a head-to-head victory over the Fighting Irish that they had previously ignored. To hear CFP chair Hunter Yurachek say it, the committee did not view these teams as being comparable. But despite no new information, the committee simply changed their minds with little explanation. Suddenly, the teams became comparable.

Now, Notre Dame will miss the College Football Playoff after dropping behind both Alabama and Miami despite winning games by a combined 119-27 over their final two weeks.

ESPN’s Max Olson: Texas Tech beats BYU for Big 12 title, likely CFP 1st-round bye

Texas Tech assembled what can now be called one of the greatest transfer portal classes of this evolving era of NIL and transfers in college football, a group of 22 incoming transfers that yielded 11 players who started in the Big 12 title game, four first-team All-Big 12 performers and a projected first-round draft pick in pass rusher David Bailey.

Blanchard believed from the beginning that the Big 12 was not equipped to compete with what the Red Raiders had assembled. The results of that ambitious roster-building experiment: Every Texas Tech victory has been by more than 21 points.

“Mission accomplished,” Blanchard told ESPN. “It’s proof of concept. We’ve got an opportunity to go win a national championship, and I like our chances.”

CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah: Long time coming: Texas Tech’s dominance in Big 12 Championship Game puts exclamation point on historic season

On Saturday in front of a record crowd, it all came to fruition. No. 4 Texas Tech stunned No. 11 BYU 34-7 to capture its first Big 12 championship in program history. The Red Raiders scored 34 unanswered points, including 13 in the fourth quarter to clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff.

The Red Raiders’ defense was dominant, forcing four turnovers, including two interceptions by linebacker Ben Roberts. Quarterback Behren Morton hit deep shots to Reggie Virgil and Coy Eakin as part of a balanced two-touchdown day and Texas Tech cruised to one of its best efforts of the season.

BYU had a strong season, winning four of its last six games by an average of 19.3 points per game. In 10 FBS wins, the Cougars averaged 33.2 points per game. But against Texas Tech, BYU has had nothing. The Cougars combined for just 14 total points in the two matchups. But really, this is just who Texas Tech has been all year. Outside of a road trip with their backup quarterback against Arizona State, the Red Raiders have been untouchable.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese: Joey McGuire’s vision for Texas Tech football has come to fruition

McGuire returned to another AT&T Stadium, this one home of his beloved Dallas Cowboys, and took the victory lap he’ll relish for the rest of his life. With the Big 12 Championship trophy nestled in his arms, McGuire didn’t allow ESPN reporter Katie George to get a question in before his most powerful “Raider Power” chant to date.

This one didn’t come in a suite with a few hundred people on hand. It came in the stadium where he found his first great successes as a head coach, surrounded by a record-breaking 85,519 fans — the majority of them Red Raiders — and millions more watching on ABC. The Red Raider revolution is being televised for the world to see.