From 1960 through 2023, the day Texas Tech played Texas was the most important day of the Red Raiders’ football season — not because it was always the biggest game on paper, but because beating the Longhorns meant winning the state. Texas leads the all-time series 55–18 through 73 meetings. The two programs met annually for 63 consecutive seasons, first in the Southwest Conference and then as charter members of the Big 12. Their last meeting — November 24, 2023 — ended in a 57–7 Texas victory in Austin, the largest margin in series history for the Longhorns. Texas then moved to the SEC in 2024. The Battle for the Chancellor’s Spurs is paused. But per an agreement between both universities reported by Sports Illustrated, the annual non-conference matchup is expected to continue — the rivalry just needs a new calendar slot.
What it also has: a 2025 Texas Tech program that won the first Big 12 Championship in program history, reached the College Football Playoff, and finished 12–2 and ranked #7 nationally. Without Texas on the schedule.
Origins: SWC Neighbors, Big 12 Rivals
Texas Tech and Texas first played on October 6, 1928 — a 12–0 Texas win in Austin. They played nine times total before 1960, when Texas Tech joined the Southwest Conference and the annual series began. For 35 years in the SWC and 28 more in the Big 12, the rivalry ran without interruption through 2023.
The series record reflects the raw power differential over seven decades: Texas leads 55–18 all-time — a 75.3% winning percentage for the Longhorns. Texas won 8 consecutive meetings from 1958 to 1966, the longest winning streak in series history. Texas Tech’s longest streak: just 2 wins (1967–1968).
But the games were rarely one-sided in spirit. Sixteen of the first 34 meetings were decided by single digits. A 1987 game ended in a tie. And when Texas Tech found its moments — 1994, 2002, 2008, 2015, 2022 — they were the kind that reorient a program’s identity for years.
The Chancellor’s Spurs: What They Are and Why They Matter
The Chancellor’s Spurs trophy was introduced in 1996 — the first season of the Big 12 Conference — when both university systems established chancellor positions simultaneously. John T. Montford, Texas Tech’s first system chancellor, initiated the exchange. A set of sterling silver boot spurs — engraved with Texas Tech’s Double T and Texas’s interlocking UT logo — are exchanged between the chancellors after each game.
The spurs were first awarded after Texas won 38–32 in Lubbock to open the Big 12 era in 1996. The trophy gave the rivalry a formal name — The Battle for the Chancellor’s Spurs — and a physical symbol of what was at stake each November.
Since the Chancellor’s Spurs tradition began in 1996, Texas leads the trophy series 21–6.
The Defining Moments
1994 — Tech’s Largest Win: Texas Tech defeated Texas 33–9 in Lubbock — a 24-point margin, the largest in the series in Texas Tech’s favor. Spike Dykes’s Red Raiders shut down a Longhorns team ranked 19th.
2002 — Kingsbury Torches a Top-5 Texas: Texas Tech won 42–38 over #4 Texas in Lubbock. Quarterback Kliff Kingsbury — who would later return as Tech’s head coach — threw for 473 yards and 6 touchdowns, one of the greatest individual performances in series history.
2008 — The Crabtree Miracle: November 1, 2008, Jones AT&T Stadium, Lubbock. Texas was ranked #1 in the country — #1 AP, #1 Coaches, #1 BCS. Texas Tech entered ranked 6th in the AP. Both teams were undefeated at 8–0. ESPN’s College GameDay broadcast from Lubbock for the first time, with Bob Knight telling the crowd he “dearly hoped we beat their asses.”
Texas Tech built a 22–6 halftime lead before Texas stormed back to take a 33–32 lead with 1:29 remaining. On the ensuing drive, Graham Harrell moved the Red Raiders 62 yards in six plays. On the penultimate play, Harrell’s pass was deflected toward Texas safety Blake Gideon — who dropped what would have been a game-clinching interception. Given a second chance with 8 seconds left, Harrell threw to Michael Crabtree near the sideline at the 6-yard line. Crabtree broke a tackle and scored with 1 second remaining. Final: Texas Tech 39–33. The fans rushed the field twice — triggering two excessive celebration penalties — before the clock expired.
Crabtree won the Biletnikoff Award. The game was later ranked 2nd most memorable moment in Big 12 history by ESPN, named Moment of the Year for 2008 by Stewart Mandel, and listed by Yahoo! Sports among the top 50 moments of the entire BCS era.
2015 — First Win in Austin Since 1997: Texas Tech snapped a six-game Texas winning streak with a 48–45 victory in Austin — the program’s first win at DKR–Texas Memorial Stadium in 18 years. Freshman quarterback Patrick Mahomes played in this game, throwing for 298 yards in his first road start against a Power Five opponent. Tech needed every yard — the final margin required a late defensive stop to hold on.
2017 — Tech Wins in Austin Again: Texas Tech won 27–23 in Austin — back-to-back road wins in Austin for the first time since the program did it in 1967 and 1968 during Tech’s only two-game winning streak in series history.
2020 — 63–56 in Double Overtime: Texas won in Lubbock 63–56 in double overtime — the highest-scoring game in series history. Both programs combined for 119 points.
2021 — Texas Answers: The Longhorns scored 70 points in Austin. Final: 70–35.
2022 — The Last Red Raider Win: Texas was ranked #22. Texas Tech was unranked. On September 24, 2022, in Lubbock, Texas Tech won 37–34 in overtime — the program’s first home victory over Texas since the 2008 Crabtree game. It was the last meeting between the programs as Big 12 conference rivals.
2023 — The Farewell: Texas, ranked #7, came to Austin knowing this would be the final scheduled meeting before departing for the SEC. Final: 57–7 — Texas scored on its first five possessions. The largest margin in series history for the Longhorns and the final exclamation mark on a rivalry Texas thoroughly dominated over its final decade.
Texas to the SEC: The Rivalry’s New Structure
In July 2021, Texas and Oklahoma accepted SEC invitations. Texas finished Big 12 play after 2023 and began SEC competition in 2024. The 63-year annual series stopped. But per the Sports Illustrated report, Texas and Texas Tech have agreed to an annual non-conference matchup following the Longhorns’ SEC departure — the Chancellor’s Spurs aren’t retired, just rescheduled. The logistics of aligning Big 12 and SEC non-conference windows will determine when the series resumes.
For Texas Tech, the departure of Texas from the Big 12 reshaped the program’s competitive identity. Without the Longhorns on the schedule, the Red Raiders had a clear path to the top of the conference — and they took it.
Texas Tech’s 2025 Season: The Championship Texas Missed
The 2025 Texas Tech season was the best in program history — and Texas wasn’t there to see it. Under fourth-year head coach Joey McGuire, the Red Raiders finished 12–2, ranked #7 nationally, and won the Big 12 Championship for the first time in program history, defeating BYU 34–7 in December 2025. It was the program’s first conference title since sharing the SWC in 1994 and the first outright title since 1955 — a 70-year championship drought, ended.
Texas Tech then qualified for the College Football Playoff — the program’s first CFP appearance — earning a quarterfinal berth before losing 0–23 to Oregon in the Orange Bowl. The 12-win season set the program record for victories in a single season.
The Red Raiders did it through McGuire’s disciplined recruiting, aggressive transfer portal investment — identified by multiple NIL analysts as one of the Big 12’s most aggressive portal spenders — and the Air Raid offensive system that has defined Texas Tech football since the Mike Leach era. Patrick Mahomes, who started here as a freshman in 2015, remains the program’s most prominent ambassador: his personal Adidas logo has appeared on Texas Tech uniforms since 2024.
NIL and What Comes Next
Texas Tech’s NIL infrastructure is built around The Matador Club. The clearest illustration of its ambition: pitcher NiJaree Canady signed a deal with The Matador Club for $1,050,024 — the $24 representing her jersey number — then added a second deal reportedly worth $1.2 million, plus a Venmo brand ambassador role, after leading Texas Tech softball to its first Women’s College World Series berth. The Matador Club’s subscription model — thousands of fans contributing monthly in exchange for exclusive content — creates the stable recurring revenue that funds competitive portal offers across football, basketball, and softball.
Texas, in the SEC, operates in a fundamentally different NIL environment. Arch Manning’s reported $5.4 million NIL valuation at Texas represents the gap between the two programs’ market access — Austin versus Lubbock, SEC versus Big 12, one of the nation’s largest media markets versus West Texas.
Red Raider fans can back Texas Tech athletes directly through RallyFuel. RallyFuel’s weekly college football predictions game lets fans earn points and direct them toward NIL support. The schools leaderboard tracks total fan contributions. The Trophy Case tracks Heisman and award contenders — Texas Tech has produced none in its history, while Texas has produced two. But the program that just won its first Big 12 title in 70 years is building toward a new era whether Texas is on the schedule or not.
The Series, Paused
Texas leads 55–18 through 73 meetings. Texas won the last game played — 57–7 on November 24, 2023, the largest margin in Texas history in this series. Texas Tech won the meeting before that — 37–34 in OT in 2022, the last Red Raider win in Lubbock since the Crabtree game. The Chancellor’s Spurs — sterling silver, engraved, exchanged between chancellors since 1996 — currently reside in Austin.
The rivalry was built on 63 years of annual confrontation — the idea that two Texas public universities, one in Austin and one in Lubbock, would settle state supremacy every fall. It doesn’t feel finished. And with an agreement reportedly in place to resume as a non-conference matchup, it isn’t.
The Red Raiders won the Big 12. They went to the CFP. They’re selling out Jones AT&T Stadium. Now they’re waiting for the Longhorns to come back to Lubbock.
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