Big money payoff for No. 5 Texas Tech, playing for 1st Big 12 title and playoff bound

By Canadian Press on December 3, 2025.

National sacks leader David Bailey understands why people want to talk about the millions and millions of dollars Texas Tech spent in the transfer portal to put together a playoff-bound team that now has a chance to win its first Big 12 championship.

“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.”

A lot of money that seems to be paying off for the fifth-ranked Red Raiders (11-1, No. 4 CFP). It helped transform them into one of the nation’s top defenses, and they have matched the school record for wins with more games to play in coach Joey McGuire’s fourth season.

On3 has reported Texas Tech’s NIL total to be about $28 million, and that is in addition to the revenue share of $20.5 million now allowed by the NCAA the under the House settlement. That total spending ranks second only behind Texas.

Texas Tech, one of six schools to be part of all 30 Big 12 seasons, plays No. 11 BYU in the league title game Saturday. The only loss for the Cougars (11-1, No. 11 CFP) was 29-7 in Lubbock four weeks ago when the Cougars had season lows for total yards (255) and points.

Out in front

With some big-money donors, most notably billionaire booster and former Red Raiders offensive lineman Cody Campbell, Texas Tech put together arguably the nation’s top transfer class and a roster reportedly filled with NIL millionaires.

There were plenty of front-loaded deals for that class, with the school’s NIL collective paying out big before the House settlement and new spending caps took effect over the summer. Tech’s newcomers this season were 21 transfers and 19 true freshmen.

Bailey, who transferred from Stanford, has 12 1/2 sacks after the edge rusher reportedly got a deal worth more than $3 million, believed to be the largest for a defensive player in the short NIL era.

That is part of more than $7 million the Red Raiders are believed to have invested up front defensively. They also added pass-rushing outside linebacker Romello Height from Georgia Tech, nose tackle Lee Hunter from UCF, and tackles A.J. Holmes from Houston and Skyler Gill-Howard from Northern Illinois.

“I feel like I’ve kind of answered it all year. Yeah, I mean, we paid guys,” said standout linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, in his fourth season at Tech. ”We’re trying to win football games just like everybody else.”

Before this season, the Red Raiders hadn’t had a 10-win season since 11-2 with the late coach Mike Leach in 2008, six years before three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes played his first game in Lubbock.

“I think it’s paying off here because of our culture and how much people care about each other around here, how much we believe in each other, and how close we get on a personal level,” Rodriguez said.

Changing call

After three consecutive 3-9 seasons at Stanford, Bailey went into the transfer portal at the end of March. He almost didn’t take the call from Texas Tech general manager James Blanchard that the California native now says “just blew my mind.”

Bailey, who anticipated going to UCLA for his final season, knew nothing about Lubbock or the West Plains of Texas before that life-changing call. His immediate Google searches after hanging up also included research on the defensive transfers already on campus and going through spring practice.

“I was like, OK, yeah, they got something going on over there,” said Bailey, who joined them for the last few practices in the spring. “They knew that we were special, and I started realizing that we were special.”

Now good on both sides

The Red Raiders have long been known for big-play offenses with quarterbacks like Mahomes and Kliff Kingsbury. Now they have the Big 12’s top offense and defense.

Texas Tech allows only 258.9 total yards and 11.3 points per game, while averaging 489.2 yards and 43.2 points — all of those numbers rank top six nationally. The defense leads the nation giving up only 68.9 yards rushing a game, with only No. 1 Ohio State allowing fewer than the five TDs on the ground against Tech.

With 37 sacks, 60 quarterback hurries, 88 tackles for losses and 13 fumble recoveries, Tech has already surpassed the 2024 totals of 21 sacks, 40 hurries, 68 TFLs and eight fumble recoveries. The top tacklers are linebackers Rodriguez (104) and Ben Roberts (69), in his fourth year with the Red Raiders.

“It’s really fun to to talk to Jacob and Ben because they say, ‘Man, we get to play free because of the defensive line that we get to play behind,’” McGuire said.

Close team

There have been times when McGuire, who himself just got a significant pay raise with a new contract this week, has brought up the money without even being asked about it.

“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,” the coach said unprompted after a win at Utah in the Big 12 opener. “I would challenge anybody to have a closer locker room, guys that care more about wearing the Double-T than care about themselves, and that shows up in close games.”

Except there really haven’t been any. All of Tech’s wins have been by at least 22 points.

The only loss was 26-22 without injured starting quarterback Behren Morton at Arizona State, which scored the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left right after the Red Raiders had two TDs in less than 2 minutes. The five-game winning streak since includes two lopsided shutouts: 42-0 over Oklahoma State, and 49-0 at West Virginia in the regular-season finale.

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Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press