Oct 11, 2025; Lubbock, Texas, USA; A general view of the tortilla toss before the game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

Texas Tech football is back at home in Week 9 of the college football season with a Big 12 showdown against Oklahoma State.

The Red Raiders' home game against the Cowboys will be different from the others this season, as one of college football's more distinct traditions is now barred at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

Why? Tortilla Gate.

Saturday's game is the first time the Red Raiders will be at home since their tortilla-throwing tradition was barred and no longer "encouraged" by the university's athletic department after it became one of the larger controversies in recent years.

The tradition of throwing the tortilla, sometimes placed in pockets to get through security, had been going on for over three decades.

Here's what to know on the tortilla throwing situation at Texas Tech football games:

Can Texas Tech fans throw tortillas at football games?

No. Tortilla throwing is now longer allowed at Texas Tech football home games at Jones A&T Stadium.

The announcement came on Monday, Oct. 21 from Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt during Red Raiders' coach Joey McGuire's weekly news conference with reporters. It also came several days after the Big 12 jumped in and escalated the penalties on their Principles and Standards of Sportsmanship policy that could come from tortillas being thrown onto the field.

"As we go forward," Hocutt said. "We are no longer going to encourage nor permit the throwing of tortillas at the opening kickoff for our home football games."

In his statement, Hocutt took blame for the situation escalating to what it became in recent weeks, referencing his tweet of "the rules can change. But our tradition will not" after the Big 12 athletic directors re-emphasized an existing rule that penalizes schools whose fans throw items onto the field over the summer.

If there are tortillas seen being thrown at the stadium, there will be severe repercussions for fans, as fans will be ejected from the game and have their ticket purchasing privileges revoked for the remainder of the academic year.

"We need to help not risk penalizing our team for throwing tortillas, simply let's not do it," Hocutt said. "The situation is on me. I leaned into this by 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 day."

Texas Tech tortilla-throwing tradition origin

As noted by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, the most popular backstory to the Red Raiders' tortilla-throwing tradition dates back to the Texas Tech vs. Texas A&M game in 1992.

The legend states that an ESPN announcer made a joke leading into that game that Lubbock, where Texas Tech is located, had "nothing but Texas Tech football and a tortilla factory." So, before kickoff to that 1992 rivalry game, Texas Tech fans brought tortillas to the game and began tossing them at kickoff.

Big 12 fine for Texas Tech tortilla throwing tradition

While it remains unclear if the following fines are still actionable, since Texas Tech has now banned the tortilla-throwing tradition at home games, these were the following upscaled penalties from the Big 12 following the Texas Tech-Kansas game on Oct. 11, according to Hocutt in a Zoom meeting:

  • For the first time a tortilla thrown onto the playing enclosure (which includes the sidelines, end zone, etc.), there will be a warning announcement made by the public address announcer
  • For the second time a tortilla thrown onto the playing field enclosure, there will be a 15-yard penalty handed out along with a $100,000 fine

The crackdown by the Big 12 on the matter was sent in a memo to all conference members by the conference regarding objects thrown from the stands onto the field.

The escalated fines from the Big 12 and the following banning from Texas Tech for fans throwing tortillas onto the field were catalyzed by the Oct. 11 game between Texas Tech and Kansas, which resulted in the conference fining Texas Tech $25,000 for "repeated instances of objects being thrown onto the playing surface."

Kansas was also fined $25,000 for comments from coach Lance Leipold about the conference, a member (of the conference) and "an inaccurate statement regarding a pocketknife" that was found on the field.

"After a formal review, Texas Tech did not take sufficient steps to prevent and deter the repeated throwing of objects onto the field and team bench areas," Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can Texas Tech football fans throw tortillas? What to know of Red Raiders tradition

Reporting by John Leuzzi, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

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