Texas Tech News, Notes and Links: Vote for Janine Beckie; Carol of Lights

A Vote for Beckie is a Vote for Texas Tech. Texas Tech soccer star Janine Beckie is up for a national award, the MAC Hermann Trophy, and there's a fan voting aspect to this, which means you've got to do your part. Yes you!

Carol of Lights. The Carol of Lights was held last night and the Daily Toreador has an excellent slideshow (love the first photo) and you can watch the whole thing below.

New Top 4. The College Football Playoff Committee released their new top four teams and there's a bit of movement, namely that TCU jumps Florida State to #3 and the top four teams are Alabama, Oregon, TCU and Florida State. Apparently the CFP Committee hates, and I mean hates, the non-conference schedule of Baylor and public relations firm or not, it looks grim for Baylor to make the top four as they are at #6. Matt Brown of Sports On Earth opines:

And here is something else to remember: The round-robin conference schedules of Baylor and TCU will eventually be the same, but they have not been the same yet, with the Bears getting one of their biggest games of the season last. If Baylor beats Kansas State on Saturday, it will have wins over TCU, Kansas State and Oklahoma. If TCU wins, its best three wins will be Kansas State, Oklahoma and Minnesota. TCU will have a better loss (to Baylor, while Baylor lost to West Virginia), but Baylor will have the best win, as the only team among the top six with a win over someone else in the top six. TCU blew out Texas Tech and barely beat Kansas. Baylor barely beat Texas Tech and blew out Kansas.

Shannon Named to NCAA Council. LAJ's Don Williams notes that Texas Tech law professor Brian Shannon has been named to a new NCAA Council:

The Council will meet for the first time at the NCAA convention in January. The NCAA said the Council "is charged with conducting the day-to-day business of Division I."

"I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to serve," Shannon said. "I think it's important when we're talking about collegiate athletics that the perspective on policy issues be a joint undertaking between athletic administrators and people with academic faculty experience. There are very few issues that are solely athletic or solely academic when we're talking about student-athletes."

New Offer and Still Waiting. I'm trying to do MikeTTU's job while he's studying for exams and apparently Texas Tech has offered Ringling, Oklahoma, offensive lineman Riley Daniel (6-6/290), who is a Houston commit currently.  RaiderPower has an interview with him so check it out. Rockwall's Xavier Castille doesn't have an offer from Texas Tech just yet, but I think this may change soon. Castille has 90 catches for 1,600 yards and 26 touchdowns (as well as 600 yards rushing). Castille was just offered by Washington and story can be found on Scout.