As we get closer and closer to the 2025 Texas Tech football season, it’s going to be absolutely fascinating to see how things play out for Joey McGuire and the Red Raiders. This is a team that very clearly has a ton of potential, but still very clearly has a ton of questions that it needs to answer during this coming season. 

And that’s part of why it’s hard for bettors and oddsmakers to project that the Texas Tech football team will have an easy time making it all the way to the College Football Playoff as part of the 2025 college football season. 

The Red Raiders have a navigable path thanks to their schedule and the way the race for the Big 12 championship is pretty wide open. On top of that, there’s a ton of seasoned talent in Lubbock thanks to the bolstering of the Red Raiders’ roster via the transfer portal. 

Still, it doesn’t seem like folks who are betting on Texas Tech seem keen on giving the Red Raiders a chance at making it to the College Football Playoff this season.

Bettors sure seem to believe the Texas Tech Red Raiders won’t be able to make the 2025 College Football Playoff ahead of season

Checking in on things over at the Fanduel sports book and we can see that the Red Raiders are being given a fairly uninspiring chance of making it to the playoff. 

Right now, if you were to bet $100 on Tech making it to the College Football Playoff, you’d be able to bring home $410 (as well as the cash you put down on that bet) if that actually happened. Let’s say you bet the other way and don’t have the Red Raiders making the playoff. In that case, you’d make just $100 for every $590 you put on Texas Tech.

I mean, that’s just not inspiring. But it makes a little sense when you consider how Texas Tech went 8-5 overall and 6-3 in Big 12 play last year and it was in the most Texas Tech way possible as the Red Raiders had a solid, productive offense and a horrific defense. 

And when you factor in how the Red Raiders are replacing both defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter (Texas Tech decided to move on there) and offensive coordinator Zach Kittley (who is now a head coach at FAU) and that lack of consistency is something I wonder a bit about. I wonder how much of an impact bringing Shiel Wood (new DC) and Mack Leftwich will have in this first season.

Will it be enough to get the Red Raiders into Big 12 title contention (and thus also a very real shot at making the College Football Playoff)? We’ll find out soon enough.