The south endzone and Womble Football Center may still be under construction for Texas Tech, but what has been fully constructed is the Red Raiders’ 2024 football schedule. After much anticipation and speculation, the Big 12 released the full slate Tuesday morning. Let’s break down Tech’s 2024 schedule with three key takeaways.
1. Three-straight home games early
What immediately jumps off the page when going through the schedule top to bottom is Tech’s home games and how they have been scheduled. Including the non-conference home opener against Abilene Christian, the Red Raiders have four home games in the first five weeks of the season. After closing non-con play with North Texas, Tech will welcome Arizona State and Cincinnati.
While the Bearcats will be one year senior to the Sun Devils in the Big 12, it will still be the first matchup for both teams against the Red Raiders in some time. Tech and Cincinnati have only played once before– a tie in 1968. As for the Arizona State matchup, it is the first in seven years.
Joey McGuire’s Red Raiders have been undeniably better at home, and if they can take care of business in the one road non-con game, Tech could very well get off to a hot start in 2024.
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2. Bye week(s?) and their timing
A new addition to the schedule in the 2024 season will be the inclusion of two bye weeks for every team. Tech is the beneficiary of two reasonably placed bye weeks, considering the matchups that come to follow. The Red Raiders’ two bye weeks will be Oct. 12 and Nov. 14.
The first is a week ahead of Baylor coming to town and the second is before a trip to Stillwater, with both the Bears and Cowboys sharing identical bye weeks with Tech.
Those, in theory, cancel each other out and neither side in those two contests will get a leg up on the other in preparation.
On the flip side, the Red Raiders will play Iowa State and Colorado the first two weeks of November, with both of those teams coming off bye weeks. That is where it could possibly get tricky from the Tech perspective, but if solely focusing on the Red Raiders’ bye weeks, this was a win.
3. No mid-week games
Though I myself have never been one to bash midweek games, there are plenty of people who do and this schedule is perfect for them. There was plenty of outcry a year ago when the 2023 slate dropped and Tech was scheduled for a Thursday night game against TCU.
In the end, the Frogs’ trip to West Texas ended up being one of the better games for the Red Raiders last year, which saw Tech reclaim the Saddle Trophy and sparked a three-game winning streak.
While the game itself was entertaining and the outcome ended up being the desired one, the logistics of the entire affair are not fun to work around for all involved. Tech fans should feel even more fortunate considering the midweek circumstances some other teams in the conference are involved in. Several games across the league this season are still not entirely decided for on a date or day of the week. The Red Raiders have avoided this in 2024.
