Texas Tech eyes academic success

November 7, 4:36 AMTexas Tech Red Raiders ExaminerJerry Moore

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Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach

AP Photo/Nati Harnik

The recucruiting efforts of all Texas Tech sports got a boost on Tuesday night with the passage of Proposition 4. Just to review, Prop. 4 is an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would allow several emerging Texas universities to qualify for additional funding in order to get some or all of them to tier 1 status. Currently, the only tier one univesities in Texas are the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and Rice.

How does this affect recucruiting? The one thing that Texas A&M and Texas both have over Texas Tech is tier one status. Consider how this would affect Texas Tech's football program. Right now, Texas can get better athletes than Tech can. That is due to a tradition of Texas dominance athletically and the fact that they are a tier one school. There is nothing Tech can do about the Texas tradition but getting tier one status would put them much closer to level playing field for recuruits than they have right now. In the short term, regardless of status, Texas will get the better of the recuruits.

Now, that is not true in the case of Texas A&M. If Tech can match the academic status of A&M, Tech will prevail on the recuruiting trail. For all the talk of A&M tradition in football, they have been a below average football program for several years. At this point in time, Tech has the better tradition. Tech is the only Big 12 team to have a winning record in football every year of the Big 12's existence. Also, this year not withstanding, Tech has owned the Aggies home and away in recent history. The only thing that allows the Aggies to have as good of or better recruiting classes than Texas Tech is academic status.

For Texas Tech to make the next step on or off the field, they need tier one status. The passage of Prop. 4 gives Tech the framework they need to get to the next level. While just having the oppourtunity does not guarantee success, the defeat of Prop. 4 would have prevented success. The first time in a long time or perhaps ever, Texas Tech holds its own fate in its hands. If Tech wants to run with the big boys, here is their chance.