ARLINGTON, Texas — With thousands and thousands of Texas Tech fans living within a five-hour drive of AT&T Stadium, the Red Raiders will have a decided home-crowd advantage over BYU on Saturday in the Big 12 football championship game in Arlington, Texas.
The metropolitan area of Lubbock had a population of 367,109 as of 2024, and Texas Tech football is pretty much the only game in town. Texas Tech also has a “significant alumni presence” in the Metroplex — close to 400,000 — according to the Texastechalumni.org website.
Kickoff is at 10 a.m. MST and the game will be televised by ABC, with Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer on the call and Kris Budden and Katie George on the sidelines.
“I know there are a lot of Red Raiders that are fired up and are going to be there in Arlington, and have been waiting for this moment of us playing for the Big 12 championship for a long time,” head coach Joey McGuire said Monday. “It is going to be an incredible game. And what’s going to be fun is the stadium will be packed. There’s going to be a lot of red and a lot of blue.”
Capacity at the home of the Dallas Cowboys is listed at 80,000, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said the event was close to being sold out as of Monday.
“It is exciting,” McGuire said. “It means a lot to this town, and it means a lot to Red Raider Nation. We can’t wait to get there.”
Tuesday, the conference reported that the game is indeed sold out, and a record crowd of more than 84,000 is expected.
Approximately 2,500 BYU fans attended the regular-season game in Lubbock on Nov. 8, a game easily won 29-7 by the home team. That was the fewest number of BYU fans at any of the Cougars’ six road games in 2025, as tickets at Jones AT&T Stadium are hard to get.
Still, noted McGuire, “there was a lot of blue here. I love that. That’s the great thing about BYU — they travel. I saw it when I was at Baylor. There was some green and a whole lot of blue when they came to Waco in 2021 when I was still there.”
Lubbock is 328 miles northwest of Arlington, a little less than a five-hour drive. BYU coach Kalani Sitake got a first-hand look at the rabidness of the Texas Tech fan base in Lubbock, and also made a plea Monday for BYU fans to flock to the venue known as “Jerry’s World” — in recognition of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“We went out there and played in the game in Lubbock,” Sitake said. “Great atmosphere, great environment, but not too friendly for us. It was a really cool experience (but) we did not show up at our best. A lot of that had to do with Texas Tech. They are a complete team with a great coach, a great coaching staff and (in) all three phases they play amazing football.”
BYU last played in AT&T Stadium in 2011, a 38-28 loss to TCU. In 2009, the Cougars defeated Oklahoma 14-13 in the first college football game ever played in the massive sports and entertainment venue with a retractable roof (although it is rarely opened).
BYU defensive lineman Justin Kirkland played for Oklahoma State in the 2023 Big 12 championship game at the stadium, but the No. 18 Cowboys lost 49-21 to the No. 7 Texas Longhorns.
“You got two juggernaut teams going at it there this week,” Kirkland told the CougConnect podcast Monday. “It will be a phenomenal atmosphere, just like it was (two years ago).”
Texas Tech’s roster includes 25 players from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, along with “numerous” coaching staff members, according to a school news release. Texas Tech is no stranger to the stadium in Arlington, as the Red Raiders played Baylor annually there from 2009-18.
A well-known high school coach in Texas before he joined the Baylor staff in 2017, McGuire coached Cedar Hill High in state championship games at Cowboys Stadium.
“It’s my favorite place in the world to coach, Cowboys Stadium,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to coach there a lot, at Cedar Hill and at Baylor. I’m excited for our players to be a part of that.”
In 101 seasons of football, Texas Tech has never faced an opponent twice in the same year; in its 101 seasons, BYU has played a team in a rematch from the regular season only once — in 2007 the Cougars lost to UCLA 27-17 in Pasadena and then defeated the Bruins 17-16 in the Las Vegas Bowl.
BYU has played in two conference championship games in its history, defeating Wyoming 28-25 in overtime in the 1996 WAC championship in Las Vegas and losing 20-13 to No. 13 Air Force in the 1998 WAC championship in the same city.
“Being in the Big 12 has been amazing for our team, for our fan base and for all of Cougar Nation,” Sitake said. “We have enjoyed all the different venues we have played in, and our partnership in the Big 12. It has been amazing.”
Is there hope for BYU, which is a two-touchdown underdog?
Consider this: Since the Big 12 championship game returned in 2017, six contests have been rematches of regular-season games. Four teams that lost the first meeting won the second meeting.
