Thank you Deseret News for featuring the partnership between BYU and Texas Tech before the big game – including an epic tailgate party with a food drive, Light the World Giving Machines, massive food truck donations, and even several pallets filled with gallons of milk.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Before every BYU road football game this season, Cougar fans have rallied together for various charitable causes at BYU’s Cougs Care alumni tailgates.
There have been book drives, food drives and clothing drives, spanning from Arizona all the way to East Carolina. Communities have been served, individuals and families have been blessed and BYU’s motto of “enter to learn, go forth to serve” has been displayed in many different ways.
Ahead of Saturday’s ultra important Big 12 championship game between BYU and Texas Tech, however, Cougar Nation took part in its most elaborate service effort of the season — with help from the Red Raiders faithful.
“The way we view it is, this is the biggest BYU football game ever with so much on the line,“ said Taggart Barron, the president of BYU’s Alumni Association Dallas/Fort Worth chapter. “So we needed a tailgate to match it.”
Thus, the BYU Alumni Association rented out Globe Life Field in Arlington — the home of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers — to host the tailgate festivities Friday night, with activities, Cougar Tails and plenty of other features for fans to enjoy in advance of Saturday’s contest.
But BYU’s alumni tailgates aren’t just all fun and games — the school loves to refer to them as “parties with a purpose.”
For the first Power Four conference championship game in school history, BYU planned a four-part service initiative to begin prior to the tailgate and conclude well after the game’s end:
- A food drive was organized on behalf of Arlington Charities, largest provider of supplemental food in the city.
- Two Light the World Giving Machines were placed right in between BYU and Texas Tech’s respective fan events Friday night in Arlington — BYU was at Globe Life Field, while Texas Tech was in the same complex at Texas Live.
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arranged for a truckload of 36,000 pounds of food to be sent out and donated between two local food banks in conjunction with BYU’s tailgate.
- The week following the championship game, BYU will send out 4,300 gallons of BYU Creamery milk to two other local food pantries who are currently low on milk supply.
Additionally, the Arlington Charities food drive was planned as a joint project with Texas Tech, and the Red Raiders would promote the Giving Machines on social media as well to encourage their fans to visit them.
Read more here: https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/12/06/byu-texas-tech-charity-drive-big-12-championship-game-2025/