Why a 12-crew playoff format improvements minimal to nothing for Texas Tech football

The incipient go to a 12-group playoff structure is unequivocally good for Texas Tech and all of college or university football.

Well, at the very least on paper.

Guess how several moments in the past ten years Texas Tech completed the typical year ranked in the prime-12. Hint: it’s the similar selection of instances the Pink Raiders have completed the frequent year ranked in the full best-25.

You nailed it! Zero! In the very last 12 or so a long time, the playoffs could’ve welcomed 32 groups and Tech would be absent on the guest list each individual solitary time.

All through the four-staff playoff era, Tech admirers and alumni all have echoed the similar sentiment – if we can just get again to the Leach days, we’ll at the very least have a shot at making the playoff.

Triple the number of teams permitted to be part of the postseason match and the sentiment remains the exact same. The last time Tech shut out the common time ranked in the leading-12 was 2008, when the Pink Raiders sat at No. 7. As we all know, Mike Leach was the head mentor then. And since his departure, Tech has been an afterthought in the Big 12 and non-existent on the countrywide stage.

So, whilst theoretically Tech’s likelihood of postseason glory tripled, in reality, the Crimson Raiders are no closer to playoff competition now than they were being any calendar year in the post-Leach era. With Matt Wells boasting a full of 8 combined wins in his first two seasons, Tech in fact is shifting backwards in its pursuit of countrywide relevance.

The new playoff structure suggests nothing at all when you’re successful four online games just about every year.

I utilized to assume Mike Leach did more damage than great by coaching this staff so properly for the duration of the early 2000s mainly because it set what I considered was an unrealistic precedent for all long run Red Raider groups. I bought into the idea that the Leach era was a fluke never ever to be repeated once again due to the fact of the geographical and historic challenges Tech inherently faces in recruiting.

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Illustrations or photos

But over time, I recognized these were lazy excuses. There’s no motive Tech just cannot earn as Electricity-5 college in a talent-loaded state with terrific facilities and economical backing.

There is a path again to national relevance. It is there, Tech just isn’t adhering to it. Iowa Condition turned it close to. Indiana, somehow, is excellent at soccer now. NC State has located consistency below the appropriate mentor. Those are teams that have just about every potential to make a 12-crew playoff once or twice per ten years. But we’re just not there, and frankly, we’re not near.

Save your optimism for basketball and baseball and keep on to demand improve from soccer. It is all we can do now.