Cincinnati Beats No. 8 Texas Tech 37-24, Handing Red Raiders First Loss After Sorsby Fight

Cincinnati stopped Texas Tech's perfect season on Saturday, Oct. 24, beating the No. 8 Red Raiders 37-24 at Nippert Stadium. It was the first game between the schools since the Brendan Sorsby fight.

Sorsby, the quarterback Texas Tech landed from Cincinnati in the transfer portal, did not play. He has been ruled ineligible over gambling violations.

A first half that decided it

Texas Tech trailed 24-6 at halftime. The Red Raiders' own postgame notes call that their largest halftime deficit since Nov. 24, 2023, when Texas led 26-7.

The offense turned it over twice in the first half. Overall, Texas Tech lost the turnover battle 3-2 and committed season highs of 12 penalties and 80 penalty yards.

Cincinnati quarterback JC French IV threw four touchdown passes. Running back Cole Tabb ran for 163 yards and a score.

Texas Tech quarterback Will Hammond went 24-of-37 for 227 yards. His streak of eight straight games with a touchdown pass ended.

The 37 points are the most a Texas Tech defense has allowed under coordinator Shiel Wood. The old high was 26, in a 2025 loss to Arizona State.

It was Texas Tech's first loss of 2026 and its first since a 23-0 defeat to Oregon in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1. The Red Raiders dropped to 12-12 in true road games under coach Joey McGuire and 5-15 when trailing at halftime.

Cincinnati, 4-2 coming in, got its first home win over an AP top-10 team since beating Rutgers 30-11 in 2006. The Bearcats have four wins over top-10 opponents in the last 45 seasons.

This was the first of three straight games for Cincinnati against teams ranked in the AP top 14. The Bearcats had lost two in a row, including a 45-42 loss at West Virginia on a last-second field goal.

Texas Tech had come in off a 53-25 win over Arizona State. It visits Arizona next.

The backstory

Sorsby entered the portal after a 2025 season at Cincinnati and signed with Texas Tech. Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield said Texas Tech committed tampering by contacting Sorsby before the season ended. Texas Tech has not conceded that.

The NCAA acted against Sorsby in May over gambling violations. He and Texas Tech won an injunction from a Texas court blocking the NCAA's action. The school reversed course after the Big 12 filed a federal lawsuit in June seeking approval to sanction it.

Texas Tech fans accused Cincinnati of turning Sorsby in to the NCAA, according to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde. Cincinnati has not publicly confirmed that.

Ahead of the game, both sides downplayed the feud. "We have too much in front of us," McGuire said Tuesday. "We still are nowhere close to the team that we can be."

Campbell's documentary line

Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell, who also chairs the school's Board of Regents, spoke about the Sorsby episode in a four-part Paramount+ documentary on the program.

"Looking back on it, I know that Texas Tech and I handled everything with integrity, and we did things the right way," Campbell said. He added: "I think this is something that could have been handled much more privately. We're not going to forget about that, and I don't think they'll forget about it either when we're up by 40 and still throwing the ball in the fourth quarter. That's where the retribution will come."

Texas Tech was not up by 40. It lost by 13.

Cincinnati's social media account also took a shot after the game. It noted that French's four touchdown passes matched a feat last achieved against the Red Raiders by Sorsby while he was a Bearcat.

Field-storm fine possible

Cincinnati fans rushed the field after the final whistle on the school's 100th Homecoming. The Big 12's standard fine for a field storm is $50,000, though the league has waived it when a school's field-storm procedures were judged adequate.

According to Sports Illustrated, Colorado avoided a fine in October 2025 after beating Iowa State, and BYU escaped one a week later after beating Utah. Oklahoma State also avoided a fine in September after fans hauled a goalpost into Theta Pond following a 39-31 upset of Oregon.

The league has not announced a decision. Sports Illustrated reported it could come as soon as Tuesday, Oct. 27.