Cody Campbell’s Friday Night Lights plea deemed a ‘self-serving’ act for Texas Tech football in disguise

Chairman of the Board of Regents for the Texas Tech University System, Cody Campbell, has been vocal about many national issues in college football over the past year. Recently, he became a spokesperson for the sanctity of Friday Night Lights in the Lone Star State after the Texas Tech Red Raiders’ Big 12 opener against the Houston Cougars in Lubbock was announced for Friday, September 18.

On that scheduling decision, Campbell claimed that “our conference should protect us more than they did,” because “they were chasing ratings.” The Houston Chronicle’s Michael Shapiro believes Campbell used Texas high school football as a cover for his own “self-serving” interests.

“Friday Night Lights is sacred in Texas, a time each week when high school football is rightly king in the Lone Star State. But Campbell isn't exactly levying a protest to protect a sacred time on the sports calendar. Instead, he hoped to protect his program from a short week, a self-serving goal disguised as an act on behalf of the public good,” Shapiro said.

“Campbell is well within his right to protest. But the Big 12 is also well within its right to deny that protest, reasserting its standing as the real power player in town. Texas Tech has 12 regular-season games on its 2026 schedule. A single Friday night contest isn't exactly an indignity, despite the cries from one of the most powerful men in college football.”

Sure, Cody Campbell has his own interests in mind. But he probably does care about Texas high school football, too.

Perhaps that’s a bit cynical from Shapiro.

Campbell has a son playing high school football and was a star player himself at Canyon High School before playing at TTU. Sure, he’s a multi-billionaire businessman now who has his own interests, but it’s a stretch to say he’s that worried about a short week after traveling to Corvallis, Oregon, to take on the Beavers.

Campbell knows how sacred Friday Night Lights are in West Texas, and it probably does bother him that Tech fans will be split on watching their local program and watching the Red Raiders’ Big 12 opener.