page_title: Lubbock, Texas
section_title: Sports
hierarchical_section_title: Lubbock, Texas / Sports
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo credit: Jay Davis. Edward Britton of the Red Raiders of Texas Tech University @ SMU Mustangs on September 3, 2007. The Red Raiders defeated the Mustangs, 49-9.
context_page_description: Lubbock
  is the 11th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 258,862 in 2019, the city is also the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically and geographically as the Llano Estacado, and ecologically is part of the southern end of the High Plains, lying at the economic center of the Lubbock metropolitan area, which has a projected 2020 population of 327,424.
  Lubbock's nickname, "Hub City", derives from it being the economic, educational, and health-care hub of the multicounty region, north of the Permian Basin and south of the Texas Panhandle, commonly called the South Plains. The area is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world and is heavily dependent on water from the Ogallala Aquifer for irrigation. CNNMoney.com selected Lubbock as the 12th-best place to start a small business. CNN mentioned the city's traditional business atmosphere: low rent for commercial space, central location, and cooperative city government. Lubbock is home to Texas Tech University, the sixth-largest college by enrollment in the state.
context_section_description: The Texas Tech Red Raiders are in the Big 12 Conference and field 17 teams in 11 different varsity sports. Men's varsity sports at Texas Tech are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field. Women's varsity sports are basketball, cross country, golf, indoor and outdoor track and field, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. The university also offers 30 club sports, including cycling, equestrianism, ice hockey, lacrosse, polo, rodeo, rugby, running, sky diving, swimming, water polo, and wrestling. In 2006, the polo team, composed of Will Tankard, Ross Haislip, Peter Blake, and Tanner Kneese, won the collegiate national championship.
  The football program has been competing since October 3, 1925. The Red Raiders have won 11 conference titles and been to 31 bowl games, winning five of the last seven.
  The men's basketball program, started in 1925,  has been to the NCAA Tournament 18 times—advancing to the Sweet 16 seven times, and the Elite Eight twice, and in 2019 they reached the Final Four and were the NCAA Tournament Runner-Up losing to the Virginia Cavaliers in overtime 77–85. Bob Knight, hall-of-famer and second-winningest coach in men's college basketball history, coached the team from 2001 to 2008.
  Of the varsity sports, Texas Tech has had its greatest success in women's basketball. Led by Sheryl Swoopes and head coach Marsha Sharp, the Lady Raiders won the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship in 1993. The Lady Raiders have also been to the NCAA Elite Eight three times and the NCAA Sweet 16 seven times. In early 2006, Lady Raiders coach Marsha Sharp resigned and was replaced on March 30, 2006 by Kristy Curry, who had been coaching at Purdue.
  In addition, Lubbock is the home of the Chaparrals of Lubbock Christian University. With a recent move up to NCAA Division 2, the women's basketball team has won the 2016 and 2019 national championships. In 2009, the Lubbock Christian University baseball team won their second NAIA National Championship.
  In 2007, the Lubbock Renegades began play as a member of the af2, a developmental league of the Arena Football League. The team discontinued operation in 2008.
  High-school athletics also feature prominently in the local culture.
caption: A Texas Tech Red Raiders football game
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