Tim Brando, Amanda Atwell battle on X over Steve Sarkisian’s perceived Texas Tech jab

Fox Sports announcer Tim Brando has been fiery on X in recent days, defending the proposed 24-team College Football Playoff and pushing back on the presumed superiority of the SEC and its coaches.

Things boiled over on Friday when Texas journalist and podcaster Amanda Atwell pushed back against his analysis of Steve Sarkisian’s comments about Texas Tech.

Let’s start with Sark. The UT coach raised eyebrows on Thursday when he took a shot at a rival Texas football program while making a point about the importance of strength of schedule.

“There’s a team in our state that plays in another conference that has a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and our threes, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year,” Sarkisian said, per OrangeBlood’s Anwar Richardson. This was an answer to a question about how the College Football Playoff Committee factors in the strength of schedule in its decision-making.

While Sark didn’t identify the team, many assumed he was referring to Texas Tech, which reached the playoff last season after going 11-1 and winning the Big 12 championship. Texas went 10-3 against a tougher schedule that included Ohio State and SEC opponents, but was left out of the CFP.

Friday morning, Brando quoted a Brett McMurphy write-up of Sarkisian’s comments, saying “it appears the double whammy of Texas privilege plus an injection of it ‘just means more’ has gotten well into Sark’s bloodstream.” Brando also noted that the idea of Texas beating Texas Tech with his backups was “preposterous.”

That’s where Atwell chimed in, pointing out that Sarkisian never said that Texas would beat Texas Tech with its second- and third-stringers, but agreed with the sentiment that the Red Raiders’ schedule was much easier than the Longhorns’.

Brando responded by saying that those beliefs “simply aren’t true,” to which Atwell said that “to try and act like Tech’s schedule is comparable to even a Big Ten schedule is laughable.”

That’s when Brando started going low, taking a shot at Atwell, saying that her “fandom is showing and perhaps at this stage that’s fine.”

“Being condescending about my career isn’t going to help get your point across. You’re just being rude at this point,” replied Atwell, in an attempt to nip it in the bud.

The bud was not, in fact, nipped, and only seemed to inflame the longtime Fox Sports announcer further.

“[Your] over the top reaction certainly lacks in hint of sports broadcasting at any level being in your background,” wrote Brando. “That’s what I’m saying. Ya wanna throw the kinda garbage I see and hear on the internet at me here? We can fix that right away. You’ve been someone I’ve supported in that area in the past.”

“I’m the problem when you’re the one continually taking derogatory shots at me about my career path because I disagree with you on something? You’re the one who took this personal rather than being able to just talk about sports,” Atwell replied. “Disappointing to say the least.”

And eventually, things went fully off the rails.

“Don’t challenge me like that Amanda. Not here. Not anywhere ok,” he wrote. “You decided to impress your Texas friends with this kinda rhetoric aimed at me here rather than with a DM. That was your call.”

“Oh I’m that below you I can’t challenge you when I think you’re off base? Noted,” replied Atwell. “I don’t think I’m the one who overreacted here, considering I didn’t [resort] to personal public jabs towards someone who used to look up to me.

With a chance to take the high road, Brando instead kept on going.

Yeah ya did but that’s ok,” he wrote, adding a thumbs up emoji. “I just didn’t think you were wired like other fans on message boards. Guess I misjudged ya there. Carry on Amanda I sure have.”

“Tim – you decided to immediately start taking condescending shots at my career when I pointed out that you might have misinterpreted Sark’s statement,” Atwell added in a parting shot. “I was simply trying to talk about sports, you took it personal and that doesn’t fly with me. Also, don’t tell me what to do.”

And then, after all that, Brando hit Atwell with the block.

And there it is 😂 pic.twitter.com/vwPMHogBWW

— Amanda Atwell (@AmandaMAtwell) May 22, 2026

Amazing to me I can have more level headed conversations about Sark’s statements with Tech burners than I can a national media personality

— Amanda Atwell (@AmandaMAtwell) May 22, 2026

Whew.

As we always try to do in Twitter Wars, we have to declare a winner and in this instance, Atwell walks away with a knockout. Brando came in hot but misunderstood the initial comments. Atwell tried to bring him back on course, the Fox Sports announcer dug in his heels and made it personal, and then couldn’t take the heat when Atwell was willing to stand up for herself and go toe-to-toe. There’s an interesting conversation to be had about what Sarkisian said, but this wasn’t it.

If this is a preview of how the conversations are gonna go this season around Texas football, the SEC, and the CFP, gird your loins, everyone.