With Monday’s Brendan Sorsby ruling and Texas Tech’s apparent plan to play its new starting quarterback when he’s eligible in Week 3, Notre Dame has a chance to lead the kind of response several other schools have only hinted at. The Irish should refuse to schedule the Red Raiders in any sport for the foreseeable future.
The timing of any announcement from Pete Bevacqua that he won't be working with Texas Tech this week would be an especially big gut punch, given the rumors that he and Tech are working toward a football scheduling deal for an upcoming season. While nothing has been confirmed yet, Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire hinted last week that something was in the offing.
McGuire teased a big-time home-and-home series for the 2027 and 2028 seasons on Wednesday when speaking at the San Antonio QB Club. He did not reveal exactly who the opponent would be, only providing that they are of the blue-blood status. Right after his tease, insiders hinted at Notre Dame and USC as the blue-bloods in question.
The Fighting Irish seem like the most obvious answer to who the team might be, considering the tease was born in the wake of McGuire talking about scheduling ND should Texas back out of a scheduling agreement the Longhorns have with the Golden Domers.
Joey McGuire at the San Antonio QB Club: Texas Tech is expecting to announcing a major 2027-28 home and home with a major blue blood.
— CJ Vogel (@CJVogel_OTF) June 3, 2026
“It won’t be Texas because they’re scared.”
Notre Dame football should not ignore the optics of Texas Tech's latest controversy
“I saw a comment by [Texas AD Chris Del Conte] that he's not sure if Texas is going to play Notre Dame in '28 and '29. We need a '28 and '29 game too because Mississippi State backed out on us,” McGuire said last month. “So we'll take that game if they want to get out of it. If Texas doesn't want to play Notre Dame, we would love to play Notre Dame in '28, '29."
It’s possible that, instead of 2028 and 2029, the Irish and Red Raiders have discussed scheduling something for next year. If that is the case, Bevacqua has a duty to announce that any plans the two sides have discussed are now null and void.
Anyone and everyone in the sport should be offended that Texas Tech plans to play Brendan Sorsby, despite the fact that he placed thousands of bets while at Indiana and Cincinnati, and even bet on his own team in Bloomington. The NCAA had its hands tied by Monday’s ruling, after initially ruling him ineligible for the 2026 season. That ruling by a Texas court said the quarterback could not be punished by the NCAA in any way and that he would only miss two games, rather than the season.
If the NCAA can’t punish Sorsby’s squad, then Notre Dame and other programs can. There’s no rule that says teams can’t refuse to reward Tech’s deeply problematic behavior with outside money or fan attention. It’s one of the only tools opposing teams can use in retribution. With the Irish holding themselves up as a moral authority, an announcement that they won’t schedule Tech is an absolute no-brainer.
It’s also worth noting that, after spending an offseason hearing rumors that schools were planning on giving Notre Dame the cold shoulder because they opted out of a meaningless bowl game, turning the tables on the Big 12 school would be quite therapeutic.
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