Here is what the 2026 football schedule looks like for your Texas Tech Red Raiders.
LUBBOCK, Texas - The Big 12 Conference released the 2026 schedule on Wednesday as the college football landscape moves into the offseason.
For the Texas Tech Red Raiders, it's the first time they will be entering a season defending a Big 12 championship and berth into the College Football Playoff.
A major factor in the conference sequencing is that Texas Tech will not face either BYU or Utah, who finished second and third in the standings below the Red Raiders. Tech swept the three total games against the Cougars and Utes last season, including the Big 12 title game against BYU in Arlington.
Here is the 12-game slate that lays out how Texas Tech will aim for an encore in 2026:
WEEK 1: Sep. 5 vs. Abilene Christian
- The Wildcats took a team full of former Red Raiders into Lubbock and nearly walked away with an overtime win in Week 1 in 2024. Since then, Texas Tech has proved that it's done letting FCS teams hang 50 on them.
WEEK 2: Sep. 12 at Oregon State
- Texas Tech is 2-0 all-time against the Beavers, but this will be the team's first meeting in Corvallis. The first matchup came in 1959 while the most recent wast last season, a 45-14 Red Raiders win.
WEEK 3: Sep. 19 vs. Houston
- The Red Raiders' conference season begins a week earlier than last season. Tech finished the year 8-1 in the Big 12, including a 35-11 victorylast season on the road against the Cougars.
WEEK 4: Sep. 26 vs. Sam Houston
- One of the newer FBS programs in the state visits Lubbock, which is Texas' newest hot bed for college football superiority. The Bearkats went 2-10 last year and 1-7 in Conference USA.
WEEK 5: Oct. 3 at Colorado
- The Red Raiders take a trip to Boulder after Coach "Prime" Deion Sanders brought Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter to Lubbock in 2024. FOX Big Noon Kickoff broadcasted from Lubbock, as well, in 2024, but this one may not be as exciting. The Buffaloes had a 3-9 showing in 2025 overall, 1-8 in the Big 12 to finish second-to-last in the league.
WEEK 6: BYE
WEEK 7: Oct. 17 vs. Arizona State
- The Sun Devils were the only team to beat Tech in conference play last year. ASU will not have quarterback Sam Leavitt, as he transferred to LSU. The Red Raiders were already without starter Behren Morton for that game due to injury, so backup Will Hammond played. This time around, Hammond is recovering a torn ACL and head coach Joey McGuire found his next starter in highly-touted Cincinnati transfer Brendan Sorsby.
WEEK 8: Oct. 24 at Cincinnati
- Speaking of that, Sorsby gets a return to his old stomping grounds in Texas Tech's fourth conference game. The top portal QB recorded 5,613 passing yards and 1,027 rushing yards in two seaons with the Bearcats.
WEEK 9: Oct. 31 vs. Arizona
- A Halloween treat at the Jones AT&T Stadium with All-Big 12 quarterback Noah Fifita looking to avoid getting spooked by Red Raider Nation. Fifita led the Wildcats to a respectable 9-4 (6-3) mark last season. And yes, more than half of the opponent mascots to this point are big cats.
WEEK 10: Nov. 7 vs. West Virginia
- The Mountaineers finished 4-8 and 2-7 in conference. Tech narrowly holds an 8-7 lead in the all-time series, but last year's 49-0 bloodbath tells the story of the current rivalry.
WEEK 11: Nov. 14 at Oklahoma State
- The Cowboys were winless in the Big 12 last year, but coach Mike Gundy was fired midseason and quarterback whisperer Eric Morris is in after guiding North Texas to its first AP Top-25 year-end finish in program history (24). Morris brings with him incoming sophomore quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who led the nation in passing yards in 2025 with 4,379 yards.
Morris has history with Texas Tech as the team's offensive coordinator from 2013-2017. He's fondly remembered as the man who helped recruit Patrick Mahomes to the Red Raiders back in 2014.
WEEK 12: Nov. 21 at Baylor
- Tech's only two-game road stretch brings them to Waco, where Lubbock native Sawyer Robertson has graduated and paved the way for former five-star recruit and Florida quarterback DJ Lagway to transfer in and sign with the Bears.
WEEK 13: Nov. 28 vs. TCU
- Red Raider fans tend to hold the matchups with Baylor and TCU as their only long-standing rivalries in the Big 12 now that Texas is in the SEC, so ending the season like this should keep the emotions riding high going into what could be another deep postseason run.
The Horned Frogs went 9-4, losing each of their games in Big 12 action, but will be without quarterback Josh Hoover, who now takes over for Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza and the new champion Indiana Hoosiers.
