Texas Tech Makes YETI’s New College Football Collection

YETI has announced a new line of college football water bottles and tumblers, and Texas Tech made the cut.

YETI is big around these parts. Texas Tech is also big around these parts. Heck, I guess both are big just about everywhere these days, so a team-up makes a whole lot of sense.

Still, I think there's something a little more significant going on here.

YETI's new Collegiate Fandom Collection features a limited group of major college football programs, and the Red Raiders are right there with them. The Texas Tech version includes a 26-ounce Rambler water bottle with a Chug Cap for $60, complete with Red Raiders branding.

Texas Tech Is Running With Some Big Names

Say what you want, but I think this is another small sign that Texas Tech has been elevated into the national conversation.

I think back to when I was a kid and I could never find one of those little personalized license plates for my bike that said "Wes." I can't tell you how many of my otherwise perfect days at Disneyland were ruined because there wasn't an official Mickey Mouse license plate with my name on it.

That's kind of how it used to feel being a Texas Tech fan.

Whenever some big national company rolled out college merchandise, you'd expect Texas to be represented. Maybe Texas A&M. Texas Tech? Not necessarily.

This time we're included.

YETI's collection also features some of the biggest brands in college football, including Alabama, Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Georgia, LSU and Florida, along with Texas and Texas A&M.

That's pretty good company.

I'm sure everybody could nitpick the lineup. USC and UCLA seem like pretty obvious omissions to me, and there are plenty of other powerhouse programs you could argue belong there.

But that's kind of the point.

Texas Tech is there.

How Much Is The Texas Tech YETI?

So what are you in for as a Red Raiders fan?

Well, I hope you really like water, YETI products or Texas Tech, because the 26-ounce Red Raiders Rambler is $60. YETI describes it as double-wall vacuum insulated, leakproof and finished with a 360-degree printed Texas Tech design.

That's certainly not gas-station-water-bottle money.

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Then again, Texas Tech fans have proven over and over again that they'll spend some cash to represent the Double T.

The bigger takeaway to me isn't really the water bottle.

It's that when YETI sat down and picked the college programs it wanted associated with this national collection, Texas Tech was one of them.

There was a time when Red Raider fans were used to watching this kind of merchandise roll out for everybody else.

Not this time.