OKLAHOMA CITY — After pitching only one inning in the biggest game in Texas Tech softball history, pitcher NiJaree Canady watched the remainder of the game from the dugout. Canady, who started every game of the Women’s College World Series for the Red Raiders finally hit her wall.
“I think the amount of innings got to her,” Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco told the media postgame. The former Louisiana Tech head coach put his ace in the circle for 240 of the Red Raiders’ 410 innings pitched.
Any why wouldn’t he?
Canady completed her junior campaign with a 1.11 earned run average and over 300 strikeouts. The Red Raiders right-hander more than earned her second $1 million NIL contract before the opening pitch of the winner-take-all Game 3 at Devon Park here Friday night.
Her headline-grabbing NIL deals and dominance on the diamond made her the most talked about softball player in recent memory. Unfortunately for Texas Tech, the highest-paid pitcher in NCAA softball is indeed still human. After six complete games and 34 innings pitched in nine days, Canady’s velocity and pitch placement noticeably declined against Texas.
Those are the hard facts in dissecting the Texas’ 10-4 victory that gave the Longhorns the school’s first softball championship. However, some see the 2025 Women’s College World Series battle as offering something more lasting for both programs and the sport at large.
“Honestly, it just gets bigger and bigger, and I feel like more eyes are on the sport,” Canady said Friday night. “Of course, that comes with, like, positives and negatives. There’s always, like, negative attention that comes with it. But I feel … [we’re] just growing the sport, and just giving younger girls something look up to, it means a lot.”
The first two games of the championship series each reached a record 2.1 million viewers. The cumulative attendance at Devon Park reached 119,778, a tournament record. Friday’s game saw a record crowd of 12,269.
Record NIL money. Record attendance. Record viewership. It can leave one feeling like Texas Tech’s Canady is on the path to becoming the Caitlin Clark of NCAA softball.
“If Caitlin Clark would have entered the transfer portal after her sophomore year, where would the bidding war have ended up, knowing what you know now?” OpenDorse CEO Blake Lawrence told The Athletic last July. “The bet here is that the rise of women’s sports, the rise of softball viewership, and a once-in-a-generation talent like Caitlin Clark is on the market. The $1 million payment could be justified.”
The quote aged well. A year later and Texas Tech competed in their first NCAA championship series. The trophy may have evaded the Red Raiders in their debut, but Canady and her teammates expressed no regrets.
“Yes, this year wasn’t how we wanted it to go. It’s not how we wanted it to end,” Canady said, “but to be able to go, to have a team that didn’t even make it to a regional the year before, come to the final, to push a third game in a national championship series, I feel like that means a lot.”
However, as the junior alluded to, with more money often comes more problems — or, perhaps more awareness of existing problems.
Although Glasco has said multiple times Canady’s skill and her impact on the program is worth at least $1 million, he doesn’t shy away from the hard truth about gender inequity in how NIL deals are discussed.
“I think it’s interesting. You watch an Ohio State in the men’s football game, national championship game, you don’t hear any announcers talking about NIL,” the coach said. “I found it almost insulting to her at times when I listen to broadcast, how much they talk about it, because … I don’t hear it when we talk about, when we watch a men’s basketball game or a men’s football game, and, to me, that that’s not right.”
However, will these inequities, or the ability of a softball program to offer a $1 million dollar NIL deal, soon be a thing of the past? As Texas and Texas Tech prepared for Game 3 of the 2025 WCWS, a federal judge made her final ruling on the House vs. NCAA lawsuit.
House v. NCAA settlement approved: Landmark decision opens door for revenue sharing in college athletics
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As part of the $2.8 billion settlement, beginning July 1, schools will have $20.5 million in payments to divvy out across their men’s and women’s athletic programs.
Should the suggested back-payment formula be used, 90% of the fund will be allocated to football and men’s basketball. Women’s basketball would receive 5% of the pool and all other sports, including softball, would spilt the remaining 5%.
Between the Wild West-era of NIL and the increasing transfer portal traffic, college rosters are constantly changing. As more money comes into sports like softball, coaches must strike a balance between cultivating young athletes and leaders with recruiting superstars who can accelerate the championship window.
What is that balance?
“That’s the great unknown right now,” Texas coach Mike White told CBS Sports Friday night. “Like the athletic director [Chris] Del Conte said, it’s, like, coming up, sailing out in a flat world and coming off the edge … In some respects, it’s great that these athletes are able to kind of earn a living now, or get paid for what they do, and that’s awesome. But it’s also hard to compete.”
Even while competing in his eighth WCWS championship, White and his staff had eyes on the transfer portal, because that’s what is required to compete in 2025. Austin may have the title, but there’s no denying that there’s also a good deal of momentum some 375 miles away in Lubbock.
All signs point to the rising senior returning to Texas Tech. The question now is whether Canady and Glasco can build on The NiJa Effect?
