Jealousy fuels criticism of Texas Tech's championship quest. Discover how they're legally outspending rivals in college football's new NIL era.
The insults are fueled by jealousy.
The negativity is oozing with hypocrisy.
The Texas Tech football team just won the Big 12 and now has a bye in the College Football Playoffs, with a No. 4 ranking that suggests - incredibly - that a national championship is possible.
And yes, money is one of the reasons why. ... even as the Red Raiders are being lamely ripped for being "The Best Team Money Can Buy.''
Responds superstar linebacker Jacob Rodriguez with a crisp frankness: “Uh, if we are going to buy a team, why not be the best?”
The fact is, Texas Tech is simply doing what all of the other top programs in NCAA football are doing or trying to do ...
Except that the Red Raiders are doing it better.
The new NIL rules have created a sort of "Wild West'' scenario when it comes to competition for players ... and the little town of Lubbock in West Texas has fully embraced the concept, with fourth-year coach (and Texas lifer Joey McGuire doing his thing and with deep-pocketed booster Cody Campbell (a former Red Raiders player turned oil magnate) doing his.
Star pass-rusher David Bailey reportedly got a deal worth more than $3 million - maybe the top defensive number in the sport. Pass-rusher Romello Height, nose tackle Lee Hunter, tackles A.J. Holmes and Skyler Gill-Howard and many more standouts transferred here to join Butkus winner Rodriguez in part due to the paycheck.
“I mean, it's there. It's kind of like an elephant in the room, so I'm not mad at people when they start talking about it, they start asking about it,” Bailey said. “You know, if I was on the other side, I would probably ask about it, too.”
Asked and answered.
Teams are now spending over $20 million in players salaries in order to compete. Tech's NIL total is estimated to be about $28 million. That's less than the Texas Longhorns spend (and they didn't make the CFP) and it's not out of whack with the budgets at powerhouses like Ohio State, Michigan, Miami, Texas A&M and Oregon.
As Ducks coach Dan Lanning put it, Oregon "spends to win."
So why can't Tech?
We can argue that the system is broken. But we shouldn't do that without acknowledging that big-time programs have long paid players - but that back in the day, they did so under the table.
This isn't Tech breaking rules. Given that not even the teams coached by the late "pirate'' Mike Leach or the teams led by three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes were ever this competitive ...
This is Tech breaking records.
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Before the season, some anonymous Big 12 coaches spoke to The Athletic in harsh tones about Tech's insta-rich roster.
“Ridiculous. …They’re not just outbidding, they’re outbidding (other teams) by 3X,” said one.
“If it simply boils down to whoever has rich boosters wins football games, that’s bad,” said another coach.
“I mean, it’s childish. I think it’s, ‘Hey, look at me,’” said a third coach. “I don’t think it’s good for college football.”
McGuire's response to the criticism?
“There’s a lot of things said about our team and a lot of things written about the cost of the roster and this and that,'' he said. "I would challenge anybody to have a closer locker room, guys that care more about wearing the Double-T than care about themselves ...''
And we would challenge the naysaying coaches from other teams to answer honestly about whether their programs spend NIL money ... and whether they'd OK spending more if a booster wrote the check.
And again ... they're all writing checks.
READ MORE: A Team of Destiny in West Texas?
Texas Tech QB Behren Morton's NIL deal is worth about $1 million. Out of whack? Houston quarterback Conne Weigman makes the same. Duke's Darian Mensah is the highest-paid quarterback at $4 million.
“I feel like I’ve kind of answered it all year. Yeah, I mean, we paid guys,” said Rodriguez. ”We're trying to win football games just like everybody else."
And the only reason for the competition to be upset is because Tech is winning football games better than they are.