Texas Tech reporter rips Texas and Texas A&M for refusing a challenge other SEC football teams embrace

Texas Longhorns football coach Steve Sarkisian made the bold claim on Thursday night that the Texas Tech Red Raiders have an easy schedule in the Big 12 that his backups could go undefeated with. Needless to say, it’s gotten a strong reaction across the Lone Star State.

In West Texas, specifically Lubbock, it’s not going over well. Red Raiders beat reporter and Texas Tech grad, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams, thinks Sarkisian is the wrong messenger for this. Williams called out the Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies for refusing to play the non-conference Power 4 teams in the state, something their SEC counterparts aren’t doing, and called the two SEC Texas teams “lame.”

“On the list of nauseating developments in college sports during the 21st century, high up there is the refusal — cavalier and puerile — to square off with longtime rivals. Wherever it happens, fans lose. Around here, it's an affront to football in the state of Texas,” Williams wrote.

“You'd be wrong to chalk up UT's hubris or A&M's dodging as just an SEC thing. Annually, Florida still plays Florida State, Georgia plays Georgia Tech, Kentucky indulges Louisville and South Carolina and Clemson get it on.”

Texas and Texas A&M have comparable or better future Power 4 opponents than Texas Tech

Texas A&M has the Arizona State Sun Devils and Louisville Cardinals in future non-conference Power 4 home-and-home series, plus the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this September. Texas has the Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame in future non-conference Power 4 home-and-home series, and faces the Ohio State Buckeyes this September.

Through that context, it’s tough to call the two SEC squads “lame,” especially when strength of schedule doesn’t seem to be taken into account when the CFP field is being named. Granted, Sarkisian’s comments on the schedule do often come off as excessive. Complaining about his 9-3 Longhorns not making the 2025/2026 field was probably a step too far for Sark.

Still, the Longhorns, in particular, are stepping up to the biggest brands in the sport year after year. Putting the Red Raiders on the schedule wasn’t en vogue until last year, and those other matchups were already announced at that point.

If we don’t see Texas Tech on either SEC Lone Star State school in the next decade, we can revisit the “lame” argument.