Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire challenged Texas and Steve Sarkisian to schedule the Red Raiders in Week 1 after Sarkisian's disparaging comments about Texas Tech's schedule.
The Longhorns and Red Raiders both have Week 1 games scheduled against Texas State and Abilene Christian, respectively. However, McGuire -- a former Texas high school coach -- said that he's already spoken to Keith Patterson at ACU and GJ Kinne at Texas State, and both were willing to buy out of their games and play each other instead.
"We're willing to buy our contract out of ACU," McGuire said. "I'm sure because Texas has got a lot of money, they can buy their contract out, but I do know there's a lot of Red Raiders that could help them buy that contract out if they don't want to, and they can come to Lubbock in Week 1 and figure out if their twos and threes can win this conference."
"I do know that [megabooster] Cody Campbell reached out to Stephen Jones, so if they don't want to come to Lubbock, then we're going to work on trying to get to AT&T Stadium," McGuire said. "So if they want to play Week 1, we're ready. We would love to play the University of Texas."
What Sarkisian said
Sarkisian was asked about strength-of-schedule ratings by a fan at the Touchdown Club in Houston last week. Multiple figures in the SEC have complained about the committee not respecting strength of schedule enough after the 9-3 Longhorns were left out of the CFP.
"There's a team in our state that plays in another conference that has a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and our threes, we could go undefeated, and they'll probably make the CFP this year," Sarkisian said.
McGuire asked a staff member to pull up Sarkisian's remarks after seeing them on social media to make sure that he had all the context.
"There's no way they're talking us because Sark's a pretty tough guy, his teams are really tough, and I would think that if he was talking about us, he would call us out, right?" McGuire said. "Like he wouldn't just say this kind of comment of, well, there's another team in our state. Well, I guess he was talking about us."
Where both teams finished last year
Texas was the first preseason AP No. 1 team to finish outside of the top 10 since USC in 2012. While the Longhorns missed the postseason, Texas Tech captured the No. 4 seed and a first-round College Football Playoff bye after winning the Big 12 for the first time. The Red Raiders lost 23-0 to Oregon in the Orange Bowl.
Both Texas and Texas Tech are regarded as top CFP and conference title contenders heading into 2026. The Longhorns project as having one of the most difficult schedules in college football, including a marquee home matchup against Ohio State. After the collapse of the legacy Pac-12 left Oregon State hanging, the Red Raiders do not have a Power Four nonconference opponent. They also miss both BYU and Utah on their schedules.
Texas and Texas Tech have played more than 70 times, including annually as members of the Big 12 and Southwest Conferences. McGuire pulled an upset over the Longhorns during Texas's last game in Lubbock in 2022. However, the Longhorns got the last laugh in Austin during their farewell tour through conference, a 57-7 decision.
