Your move, Longhorns.
After Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made headlines by torching Texas Tech's strength of schedule, Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire shot back with an open invitation for the Horns to pay a visit to Lubbock.
"We would love to play Texas," McGuire said Thursday, offering to buy out games against Texas State and Abilene Christian to make room on the schedule.
Joey McGuire on Steve Sarkisian's comments alluding to Texas Tech's schedule.
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) May 28, 2026
Coach McGuire has talked to Texas State & Abilene Christian & would love to buy out those games to play Texas this season in Week 1. If not Lubbock, then @ATTStadium
"We would love to play Texas."...
At the Big 12's spring meetings this week, McGuire also told reporters that Texas Tech board of regents member Cody Campbell has had conversations with Stephen Jones, the Dallas Cowboys CEO, about potentially hosting a Texas-Texas Tech game at AT&T Stadium.
Upping the ante: @TechAthletics will pay the buyout for both the ACU and Texas State games. Let's go!!! @CoachSark @_delconte https://t.co/IX637eSYmX
— Cody Campbell (@CodyC64) May 28, 2026
The offer comes in response to a statement by Sarkisian that Texas' schedule was markedly tougher than that of the Red Raiders and perhaps the Longhorns face a tougher road to the playoff as a result.
"There's a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue, if I played with our twos and threes [on the depth chart], we could go undefeated," Sarkisian told a crowd in Texas earlier this month. "And they'll probably make the CFP this year."
It's one of a pair of controversies Sarkisian wandered into with comments about other teams, including suggesting that Ole Miss had an easier shot at luring transfers because of lax academic requirements that would allow transfers to "major in basket weaving."
McGuire didn't find the schedule jab particularly entertaining, and he suggested Thursday that the best way to test Sarkisian's hypothesis is to do it on the field.
"We'll find out if their twos and threes can win in this conference," McGuire said.