John and Tracy Sellers arrived in Lubbock, Texas, the night of Monday, July 22, with dinner reservations and an intention: to woo the most effective school softball participant on this planet to play for Texas Tech.
The dinner was at Las Brisas, a white-tablecloth steakhouse simply south of Texas Tech’s campus that serves up lobster guacamole and a 25-ounce bone-in ribeye. The participant was NiJaree Canady, USA Softball’s Collegiate Participant of the 12 months.
There have been six seats on the desk: the Sellers, Marc McDougal (a board member of the Matador Membership, a Texas Tech-affiliated identify, picture and likeness collective), Canady and her dad and mom. No coaches or college directors. Just some well-connected Tech supporters and a household with a menu stuffed with choices. The group made quick pals over an almost three-hour meal.
Canady, a 6-foot pitching phenom from Topeka, Kan., was visiting Lubbock for the primary time. She was lower than two months faraway from main Stanford to the Girls’s Faculty World Collection semifinals as a sophomore, garnering mainstream headlines within the course of. Just a few weeks later, she entered the switch portal, the largest star of a burgeoning sport hitting the open market.
The youngest particular person on the desk that evening, Canady held all the facility. However she additionally had a troublesome choice forward, nonetheless cautious of leaving Stanford behind. Texas Tech softball isn’t on the identical stage as Stanford, and cowers compared to a blue blood like Oklahoma, however the Sellers may provide a definite perspective. John performed soccer for the Purple Raiders beneath Mike Leach. Tracy performed softball at Tech and was on the search committee for newly employed softball supervisor Gerry Glasco, whom Tech lured from Louisiana after 5 Solar Belt Convention titles and a .773 successful share in seven seasons.
The Sellers may provide distinct sources, too. John co-founded Double Eagle Vitality, a multi-billion-dollar upstream oil-and-gas firm that operates within the close by Permian Basin area of West Texas. He additionally co-founded Matador Membership, which he oversees with enterprise associate and fellow Purple Raiders alum Cody Campbell. The collective goals to signal each athlete on campus to an NIL deal – attaining it in soccer, males’s and girls’s basketball, softball, baseball, monitor and golf, together with $25,000 every for soccer gamers and $10,000 every for softball. In 2022, the Sellers gifted Texas Tech athletics $11 million, with $1 million going towards facility upgrades to Rocky Johnson Discipline, Tech’s softball stadium.
And on Monday evening at Las Brisas, the Matador Membership was ready to make Canady a ceiling-shattering NIL provide: $1 million. However Canady wasn’t prepared to simply accept it.
She wished to tour the Tech campus and amenities on Tuesday and spend time with coach Glasco. She wished to debate her choice together with her former Stanford teammates and coaches. She wished to weigh her choices. All of it solely endeared her to the Sellers much more.
“She’s a celebrity,” John Sellers mentioned. “I wished her to make your best option she thought she may make.”
Lower than 48 hours later, they obtained the reply they had been hoping for. Canady introduced on social media Wednesday afternoon that she was committing to Texas Tech, and Matador Membership introduced it had signed Canady to an NIL settlement quickly after. The contract is for one 12 months and $1,050,024, as The Athletic beforehand reported. It’s believed to be the highest-ever NIL contract for a softball participant — by a large margin.
The $24 is for Canady’s jersey quantity. The $50,000 is for residing bills. And the $1 million is for Canady.
John Sellers declined to touch upon the particular quantity however described it as “a life-changing” deal.
“She deserves it,” he added. “She’s a whole game-changer for any program, however particularly a spot like Tech.”
Her dedication is a coup for a college with six NCAA Event appearances in softball, most lately in 2019, that has by no means reached a WCWS.
However as school soccer and basketball have turn into more and more outlined by the big-money free company fueled by NIL and the portal, Canady’s million-dollar switch marks a equally seismic second for school softball.
“It’s completely unprecedented for an annual compensation for a D-I softball participant,” mentioned Blake Lawrence, the CEO of Opendorse, an organization that facilitates and manages NIL offers. “Canady is likely to be getting paid greater than each single softball participant in her convention mixed.”
Canady dominated in her two years pitching at Stanford, main the nation in ERA as a freshman (0.57) and sophomore (0.65) and registering a sport-leading 337 strikeouts in 230.2 innings pitched in 2024. Her pitches characteristic a deadly mixture of velocity and motion, notably a near-unhittable rise ball that leaves a path of hapless batters in its jetstream.
“She’s one in every of a sort,” mentioned ESPN broadcaster Jessica Mendoza, a former Stanford outfielder. “She’s not only a pitcher. She will be able to win video games simply on her personal, and we haven’t actually seen a pitcher like that in our sport, we’ve really obtained away from that.”
In accordance with a person with data of Canady’s switch and NIL negotiations this offseason and two different sources concerned with Stanford, Canady’s household first approached Stanford’s NIL collective, Lifetime Cardinal, within the spring of her freshman season in 2023. The household was searching for a seven-figure provide.
At that time, Stanford had been gradual to embrace an NIL panorama drifting deeper into pay-for-play, and the athletic division had but to say an affiliation with Lifetime Cardinal. The collective didn’t lengthen a proposal to Canady after her freshman season, and it got here as a shock to some there when she didn’t enter the portal in 2023.
Canady declined an interview for this text by way of representatives from her administration staff and Texas Tech. Canady’s mom, Katherine, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
This previous April, Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir gave the division’s official blessing to Lifetime Cardinal, which has since concerned a number of former Stanford athletes, together with quarterback Andrew Luck, within the collective.
By the point Stanford reached a second straight WCWS final month, all events realized a bidding battle was coming for Canady’s proper arm — however few outdoors of Lubbock may have predicted the ultimate sale value. The going price for a star pitcher within the portal was believed to be within the $100,000-$150,000 vary.
Canady entered the switch portal on June 17, drawing speedy consideration from a number of elite packages. Texas Tech needed to play catch-up. Glasco was employed June 20, and as soon as he lastly may attain out to Canady, he primarily dealt together with her supervisor. Canady wished to concentrate on touring to Japan with USA Softball for an all-star occasion in early July, and her household wished to insulate her as a lot as potential from what it knew can be a spirited recruiting course of.
“It was totally different than every other recruitment I’ve been concerned with,” mentioned Glasco. “They actually had a business-like method to it early on.”
It additionally grew to become clear that NIL can be a motivating consider Canady’s final vacation spot.
An individual accustomed to the negotiations mentioned Lifetime Cardinal made Canady a proposal shortly earlier than she entered the portal on the final day the window was open.
Canady additionally modified administration groups, and her new illustration rapidly fielded each scholarship and NIL gives, Texas Tech and Matador Membership amongst them.
Canady’s recruitment out of highschool was restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, so when she returned from Japan earlier this month, she leaned into her second probability on the path, scheduling visits to Tennessee, Alabama, UCLA and Kansas, her home-state faculty, whereas nonetheless leaving open the opportunity of a return to Stanford.
Upon listening to about potential six-figure NIL gives being floated elsewhere, Lifetime Cardinal labored to boost extra funds from a wider pool of donors, together with a number of Stanford softball alums, and was making ready to make a a lot bigger provide later this month that might be “inside shouting distance” of Tech’s, in accordance with an individual with data of Canady’s switch course of.
“(Lifetime Cardinal was) extremely aggressive with each provide that NiJa was having thrown at her, and that’s saying one thing,” mentioned Mendoza.
Nonetheless, Stanford’s possibilities of retaining the coveted ace withered after she touched down in Lubbock. Following dinner with the Sellers and McDougal on Monday evening, Tech rolled out the Purple Raiders carpet on Tuesday. Glasco gave Canady and her dad and mom a tour of the amenities. He walked her by way of the roster he had already put in place for subsequent season, that includes eight different transfers, 5 of whom adopted him from Louisiana, together with Solar Belt Participant of the 12 months Mihyia Davis. Glasco knew Canady desires to hit too, emphasizing that she wouldn’t be confined to the circle.
Canady had expressed curiosity in private branding and social media, so Glasco organized a gathering to handle how Tech may assist foster that. They even appealed to the household’s Chiefs fandom, highlighting the college’s lately introduced attire take care of Adidas that contains a model partnership with Purple Raiders alum Patrick Mahomes and his signature Adidas gladiator brand.
Glasco spared no element, asking for the landscaping across the amenities to be touched up, the infield lined at Rocky Johnson Discipline and the scoreboard lit up for the go to.
“It was completely wonderful to me to see how the whole athletic division jumped in to assist us recruit,” mentioned Glasco. “When NiJa first obtained right here, I feel there was numerous skepticism that she may not like this place, it is a waste of her time. And the minute she walked on campus and noticed the sweetness, felt the love, issues simply clicked and we obtained the outcome that we obtained.”
Simply earlier than 3:30 p.m. native time on Wednesday afternoon, Canady posted a tweet thanking Stanford for “the trip of a lifetime” whereas asserting Texas Tech as her new dwelling, simply above a photograph of her seated on a throne in a Purple Raiders uniform.
These previous two years have been wonderful and I thank @StanfordSball for the trip of a lifetime. Excited for what’s forward! @TexasTechSB pic.twitter.com/C017QT51Gp
— NiJaree Canady (@CanadyNijaree) July 24, 2024
“These previous two years at Stanford have been nothing however unimaginable — I really imply that,” Canady instructed ESPN. “My purpose yearly is to win the Girls’s Faculty World Collection, in order that’s my purpose proper now. … I feel there’s a very good younger core coming in and numerous good gamers from Louisiana.”
“We’re upset we received’t be capable to proceed nurturing (Canady’s) development, however perceive the dilemma she and her household had been confronted with,” Muir mentioned. “It’s not my place to evaluate her and their selections. We perceive it and respect it.”
Eleven minutes after her dedication put up, the Matador Membership despatched a tweet welcoming Canady to Lubbock. The Texas Tech softball account posted a hyperlink for season ticket deposits minutes later.
“I positively assume NiJa’s felt the love and assist she’s going to get at Tech,” John Sellers mentioned. “It speaks to what we’re prepared to do right here to create a very good tradition and win numerous video games, it doesn’t matter what sport it’s.”
(Eakin Howard / Getty Photographs)
How important Canady’s $1 million NIL deal is to varsity softball and girls’s sports activities writ massive can’t be overstated.
Tech athletics generated $146.8 million in income in fiscal 12 months 2023, in accordance with the division’s NCAA monetary types, with soccer chargeable for $80.3 million. Softball generated $1.38 million, however that features the Sellers’ $1 million donation, and after bills nonetheless posted a $1.15 million deficit. (In fiscal 12 months 2022, softball generated simply over $340,000 and operated at a deficit of $1.44 million.) Glasco’s new teaching contract reportedly pays him $1.33 million over 5 years, together with $250,000 subsequent season. Oklahoma’s Patty Gasso, believed to be the highest-paid coach in school softball, is ready to make $1.8 million in 2024.
A choose few ladies’s school gamers — Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Livvy Dunne – have springboarded to nationwide sponsorships and mainstream prominence within the NIL period. Nonetheless, Canady represents a brand new frontier for an Olympic, non-revenue sport.
Her NIL haul with Matador Membership didn’t reset the market. It obliterated it.
“(Canady will) ceaselessly be the one of many faces of the early NIL switch portal tales,” mentioned Sue Enquist, UCLA’s seven-time nationwide champion head coach from 1989-2006 and a trailblazer within the sport. “From a enterprise perspective, it’s nice to see our sport retaining tempo with different sports activities which are rising.”
But with that diploma of development and a focus additionally comes a sure stage of scrutiny. Texas Tech softball, instantly boasting World-Collection aspirations, must shoulder the strain that comes with these well-funded expectations.
All of it additional emphasizes the arrival of big-money NIL into the game.
“If Caitlin Clark would have entered the switch portal after her sophomore 12 months, the place would the bidding battle have ended up, realizing what now?” OpenDorse’s Lawrence mentioned. “The guess right here is that the rise of girls’s sports activities, the rise of softball viewership, and a once-in-a-generation expertise like Caitlin Clark is available on the market.
“The $1 million cost,” he added, “might be justified.”
— The Athletic‘s Jayna Bardahl and Tobias Bass contributed to this report.
(High illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photographs: Eakin Howard / Getty Photographs)
