Texas Tech’s win over BYU will put Notre Dame in where it doesn’t belong
Texas Tech’s success is not the Big 12’s problem.
The issue is the degree.
For the sake of the conference, the Red Raiders are a bit too good.
Before the Big 12 title game on Saturday at AT&T Stadium, league commissioner Brett Yormark discussed his hope that a few teams would clearly rise above the others. It’s better if a few teams separate themselves from the rest. The SEC became the SEC when Alabama was The Evil Empire.
Texas Tech and BYU did that for the league in 2025. The problem for the Big 12 is the gap between Texas Tech and BYU is about the same as the distance between the two schools, 872 miles.
For the second time this season, the Red Raiders gelded the Cougars. As a result of Tech’s 34-7 win over BYU in the Big 12 title game, the league is now in the awful position of hoping to receive more love than Notre Dame, and treated better than a Group of Five conference, by the playoff selection committee.
“I would hope that they wouldn’t have to convince the selection committee, with a win today, that they deserve to be in the CFP, but it might take that,” Yormark said of BYU.
On Sunday morning, the college football playoff committee will announce the 12-team bracket for TheBIGSEC10 invitational. Tech will receive a first-round bye. Or it should.
Other than a four-point loss at Arizona State on Oct. 18, the No. 4 Red Raiders wrecked everybody on their schedule. Tech wasn’t quite at an Ohio State-level of destruction, but close. Tech’s 12 wins were by 20-point margins.
Because we are talking about the College Football Playoff selection committee, it may just seed Notre Dame first, and Texas second.
College football will never be fair. It’s always a flawed, fun, beauty contest; no matter how it looks, Notre Dame will always be in any room it wants. (Don’t worry, a lot of people in both the Big Ten and SEC offices hate it, and are trying their best to squeeze the Irish into a conference.)
Entering play Saturday, BYU was No. 11. Notre Dame No. 10.
Had BYU won Saturday, or even made a game of it, the Cougars likely would have jumped Notre Dame, and secured its first ever playoff spot. That would give the Big 12 two playoff teams.
Instead, for the second time BYU proved it does not belong on the same field as Texas Tech. The Red Raiders defeated the Cougars by the combined score of 63-14.
“The Big 12 deserves two teams in the playoffs. BYU had two losses to the No. 4 team in the nation,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said after the game. “That’s a really good football team.”
He’s not wrong, but a “really good football team” looks like it will wear the “First Out” tag.
The Cougars must pray that the committee will put them in at No. 12. They are in the conversation with Miami, Notre Dame, Virginia and Tulane.
Because of friendships and politics, there is no way the selection committee will not invite a team from the Group of Five conferences and the ACC to their little playoff invitational. Until they change the system, again, the power conference champions will all be represented, as well as one team from the Group of Five.
And until it changes, Notre Dame will always be a part of this discussion.
The Irish, who narrowly lost to Ohio State in the title game last season, haven’t lost since dropping their first two games of this season. They lost by a combined four points at Miami, and at home to Texas A&M.
A 10-2 Notre Dame is going to be invited to a 12-team playoff over an 11-2 team from the Big 12.
Whether it’s four teams or 12, after a decade of a playoff selection committee we know that they will use whatever metrics they want to justify their selections, and omissions. Sunday morning’s announcement will come with a repetitive array of contradictions, and confusion.
And, when it’s done, there will be one team from the Big 12 conference in the 12-team playoff. The same number as the Group of Five league. Just like last season.
Because Notre Dame is Notre Dame, the Big 12’s best chance was for BYU to beat, or come close, to Texas Tech.
That didn’t happen because the Red Raiders are too good for the rest of the Big 12.
This story was originally published December 6, 2025 at 2:44 PM.
