Texas Tech football fans will no longer be allowed to throw tortillas during the opening kickoff at home games inside Jones AT&T Stadium.
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt and head football coach Joey McGuire announced the decision Monday during McGuire’s weekly press conference. The change follows a Big 12 Conference memo issued last week warning schools they could face a $100,000 fine if fans throw objects onto the field during games.
“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.”
Hocutt said staff will be stationed throughout the stadium to identify anyone who violates the rule. Fans caught throwing tortillas will be ejected and lose their ticket-purchasing privileges for the rest of the academic year.
Hocutt and McGuire both acknowledged the Big 12 athletic directors’ 15-1 vote to reinforce the rule penalizing schools for fan misconduct.
“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.”
The Red Raiders are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 play after a 26-22 loss at Arizona State last week. Texas Tech will host Oklahoma State on Saturday to open the home stretch of the season, with postseason hopes still intact.
“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.
“The moment that we sit in today is one that Red Raiders have dreamed about for a long, long time, and this team, Coach McGuire, his coaching staff and our fan base has worked extremely hard towards this goal, and we can accomplish it week by week.”
But why do Texas Tech fans throw tortillas in the first place? Well, a few theories exist.
Why does Texas Tech throw tortillas?
Before this year, the Red Raiders made national headlines several times for the unusual tradition.
One of the most notable times was in 2019, when a flour tortilla flew onto the court during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, briefly stopping play and confusing the crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis — as well as the national TV audience. That was one of the most prominent incidents before this year, when the Big 12 issued a conference-wide directive warning schools they could face hefty fines if fans threw objects onto the field.
The custom, which began sometime between the late 1980s and early 1990s, eventually became a defining part of Texas Tech fan culture. National outlets including Yahoo News, Time magazine, and USA TODAY have all tried to trace its origins, but none have found a definitive answer.
Archivists, historians, and lifelong superfans have shared various stories about how the tradition started. One theory, considered less exciting, suggests that in 1989 students began tossing tortillas because soda lids — previously thrown to show school spirit — were banned.
A more popular theory links the tradition to Texas Tech’s rivalry with Texas A&M. Legend days, before a 1992 game, an ESPN announcer joked that Lubbock had “nothing but Texas Tech football and a tortilla factory,” according to the Red Raider fan site Viva the Matadors.
Fans responded by bringing tortillas to the game and tossing them at kickoff, a practice that stuck. This story also ties to a local joke about the statue of Will Rogers on his horse Soapsuds, positioned to have its rear face College Station.
Regardless of the origins, the tradition seems to have begun with humor and a sense of playful defiance.
Does the NCAA have a ‘tortilla penalty’?
The NCAA does not have a specific rule targeting tortilla throwing. However, teams can be penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct or delay-of-game if fans throw objects onto the field. The Big 12 Conference has also implemented its own penalties, including fines, for such incidents.
In August 2025, Big 12 athletic directors voted 15-1 to enforce penalties for fans throwing objects onto the field. The first offense would result in a warning, followed by a 15-yard penalty and a $100,000 fine for subsequent violations. Texas Tech was the only school to vote against the measure, with Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt stating, “the rules can change. But our tradition will not.”
Despite Hocutt’s initial support for the tradition, the situation escalated during a game against Kansas on Oct. 11, 2025. Fans threw tortillas onto the field after a warning had been issued, leading to two 15-yard penalties and a $25,000 fine for Texas Tech, the A-J reported at the time. An official from Kansas also alleged a knife thrown on the field, but that was incorrect, leading to a fine for the opposing university.
In response, Hocutt announced Texas Tech would no longer allow fans to throw tortillas during the opening kickoff of home football games. Fans are now prohibited from bringing tortillas into the stadium, and those caught throwing them may face ejection and revocation of ticket privileges for the remainder of the academic year.
This decision reflects the university’s commitment to ensuring the safety of players and maintaining the integrity of the game, especially as the Red Raiders aim for a potential College Football Playoff berth.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Why do Texas Tech fans toss tortillas? A few theories as Big 12 prohibits tradition
Reporting by Brandi D. Addison and Nathan Giese, USA TODAY NETWORK / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
