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The Big 12 fined Kansas and Texas Tech $25,000 each for tortillas, a false claim about a knife, and complaints about the conference.
The situation began with Texas Tech’s 42–17 win over Kansas on Saturday in Lubbock.
It’s a longstanding tradition for Red Raiders fans to throw tortillas. The Big 12 banned the practice before this season by outlawing fans from throwing anything onto the field, but the decades-old practice has continued. During Saturday’s game, Texas Tech got two 15-yard tortilla penalties.
(Update: On Thursday, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt told students about a new Big 12 policy: The first tortilla thrown anywhere onto the field or surrounding area results in a warning, and the second will be a 15-yard penalty and $100,000 fine.)
The game ended with a heated exchange between the head coaches, Lance Leipold of Kansas and Joey McGuire of Texas Tech. “Coach, I can’t do anything about it,” McGuire told Leipold. “You want me to do something about it?” (He also used an expletive that was bleeped out on the broadcast.)
Leipold took his frustrations into the postgame presser. “Our conference office and [Big 12 Chief Football and Competition Officer] Scott Draper and them were very poor in handling it,” Leipold said, adding that one of the officials almost got hit and tried to throw a flag that was later picked up. “We have a policy put in that wasn’t followed through, so I was very disappointed on how that was.”
The Jayhawks coach also claimed that a pocketknife was thrown and hit one of his staff members in the third quarter. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It’s supposed to be for safety and things like that, and it’s a culture that’s been accepted to a point, and it hasn’t changed. Eventually, somebody’s going to be seriously hurt, unfortunately.”
Texas Tech released a video to the Big 12 proving the knife claim was inaccurate. The video showed a Kansas player noticing the closed pocketknife on the sideline and handing it to a staffer, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, which obtained the video and Texas Tech’s communication with the conference.
“We believe this video makes it clear where the pocketknife originated, which will disprove all claims that it may have been thrown from the stands, and certainly makes it clear that it did not hit any member of KU’s staff on the sideline,” Hocutt wrote.
Leipold apologized Wednesday for his comments and said he accepted the conference’s findings and ruling. “I had an emotional reaction in the aftermath of the game and acknowledge that I need to be better,” he said.
The conference said it was fining Texas Tech for objects hitting the field, and Kansas for comments against the conference and the false pocketknife claim.
“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. “Coach Leipold’s comments questioned the integrity and professionalism of both the Conference and a member institution.”
McGuire in his postgame press conference said the tortilla penalties are going to “catch up” with the undefeated Red Raiders. “We’ve got to do a better job and I’ve got to do a better job at expressing to the fans how important they are,” McGuire said.
Kansas athletic director Travis Goff said Leipold shouldn’t have reacted publicly. “This should have been handled privately with the conference and Texas Tech and not in the heat of the moment when we did not have all the facts,” Goff said.
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