The Texas Tech football program has traded a road game at Colorado State on the 2025 schedule for a home game against Kent State, part of Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt’s stated plan for the Red Raiders to have seven home games every season.
Kent State went 1-11 last season under new coach Kenni Burns, its second losing season in a row. Kent State executive deputy athletics director Greg Glaus, who is a sport administrator for football, was a Texas Tech senior associate athletics director from 2017-21.
The schools started working on the agreement weeks ago, and Hocutt said Saturday a contract has been finalized. Barring any more changes, Tech would open the 2025 season with home games against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Kent State and Oregon State.
Many teams have non-conference schedules completed well beyond the short term, so making the switch less than two years in advance will be relative costly. Tech will pay Kent State a game guarantee of $1.5 million, Hocutt said.
That tops the $1.4 million guarantee Tech gave Florida International for a 2021 game. The amounts are about three to four times what Tech guarantees most teams coming to Lubbock. The next highest game guarantee for which Tech has contracted is $750,000 to Fresno State in 2030.
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Tech also will pay Colorado State a $1 million buyout to not play the road game in 2025.
Tech has only six home games for 2027 and now will consider whether it wants to try and replace its scheduled road game that year at North Texas. Tech officials generally have liked games in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because of the university’s large alumni base in the Metroplex and…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/texas-tech-football-adds-opponent-230620433.html
Author : Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Publish date : 2024-02-26 23:06:20
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