Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt has officially banned throwing tortillas, an established tradition among many Red Raiders fans. Tossing tortillas has become a fan tradition celebrated by much of the Texas Tech fanbase and college football fans nationwide. As reported by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas Tech will no longer permit or encourage the throwing of tortillas during the opening kickoff, or at any other juncture in the game, as of Monday October 20th.
The announcement has been met with significant resistance in college football social media circles. Some even claim that this is college football legislating out aspects that make the sport great. A team tradition that seemed relatively harmless has now been deemed a rules violation and could prove detrimental to the team on the field. Resulting in the Texas Tech athletic department’s new ban on the practice.
A Big 12 rules memo prompted the tortilla ban
Kirby Hocutt joined head football coach Joey McGuire for his weekly press conference to announce this new directive. The tortilla ban is a direct result of a rules memo sent out by the Big 12 conference last week. That memo established a $100,000 fine for schools that get penalized for fans throwing objects onto the field of play during games. While the rule change is likely aimed at preventing more dangerous items from being thrown onto the field, the new penalty would include tortillas.
"The stakes are too high," Hocutt said, "and we need to help not risk penalizing our team again for throwing tortillas. Simply, let's not do it."
Hocutt added that Texas Tech athletic department staffers will monitor the stands during games. If any fans are still found throwing tortillas onto the field, they will be identified and their ticket purchasing privileges will be revoked for the remainder of the academic year. The Big 12 athletic directors voted to re-emphasize the established rule by a vote of 15-1. A decision Hocutt supports, despite his previous enthusiasm for the tradition.
"The situation is on me," Hocutt said. "I leaned into this of throwing tortillas at the beginning of the football season. Now I must ask everyone to stop, and I must ask our staff to enforce it on game days. I ask the Red Raider Nation to continue to give these players, this team and all our Red Raiders all of our support and energy," Hocutt said, "to make sure we give them every possible chance to accomplish our goal of getting to Arlington for the Big 12 Conference championship and the college football playoff.”
Despite the recent loss to Arizona State, Texas Tech finds itself in the best position for the college football playoff since the playoff system was implemented. The Red Raiders are in the Big 12 hunt amidst a crowded top tier. BYU and Cincinnati remain the lone unbeatens in conference play. Tech has a favorable schedule the rest of the way with one challenging Big 12 game left to be played. A matchup vs current No. 11 team, BYU. While fans will be understandably upset about this administrative support of the established rule, the athletic department simply does not want unneeded penalties and/or fines as the team aims for their first college football playoff bid in school history.
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