Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images
Sep 5, 2026; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire sings the school song after the game against the Abilene Christian Wildcats at Galaxy Stadium.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders and head coach Joey McGuire will look to move to 3-0 on Friday when they begin the Big 12 portion of their schedule against Houston, but McGuire isn’t overly happy about the timing.
The 55-year-old, who is in his fifth season at the helm in Lubbock, spent the overwhelming majority of his coaching career at the high school level, where he led powerhouse Cedar Hill to Texas state championships.
That is why McGuire is planning a subtle protest of Friday’s game by wearing a Texas High School Coaches Association hat during pregame as a nod to the fact that he believes Fridays in Texas should be reserved for high school football.
Joey McGuire Isn’t Happy With The Big 12
“This is going to be weird for me,” McGuire said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “I don’t know the last time Tech has played on a Friday night in [the] regular season. This is weird because I’m so used to Friday nights in the state of Texas as, kind of, holy ground when it comes to Texas high school football.”
Those comments echo the stance that McGuire has held dating back to at least 2023, when the Big 12 first explored playing games on Friday nights.
“Friday night is such a sacred time and so we’ve got to really think through that.”
Joey McGuire in July 2023 on the potential of Friday night Big 12 games while speaking at the THSCA Convention in Houston. https://t.co/atowQubEiv pic.twitter.com/QOOR8voj48
— A David Collier (@CollieronTV) April 2, 2026
And McGuire isn’t alone in his belief.
“They (TV networks) have the draft or whatever, and the conference doesn’t want to really acknowledge it, but they do have an ability to influence those decisions,” Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in April. “They just chose not to because they were chasing ratings – which I do understand on one hand, but on the other hand, high school football is important in the state of Texas.”
Ultimately, TV networks will always have the most sway. If they want to have games on Friday nights, then there will be games on Friday nights. But it’s easy to see where McGuire and Campbell are coming from. And McGuire deserves credit for backing up his comments with real action.