When NiJaree Canady enters the circle, it is often goodnight for the opposing lineup. Texas Tech’s star pitcher gave up just five hits during Monday’s 3-2 win over four-time defending national champion Oklahoma as the Red Raiders punched their ticket to the championship series of the Women’s College World Series with Texas.
The Stanford transfer who twice anchored Cardinal trips to Oklahoma City is the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year for a reason, and continues to deliver for Texas Tech this season. Canady’s on a record-breaking NIL deal with Texas Tech’s NIL collective, The Matador Club, which she signed last summer for just over $1 million, according to ESPN.
She is college softball’s first member of the million club after the Red Raiders made her a priority in the transfer portal ahead of coach Gerry Glasco’s first season. Oklahoma and Texas, among others, immediately pursued Canady, but Texas Tech pushed out front with the financial help of boosters Tracy and John Sellers, a pair of former Red Raiders athletes.
“We look at it as they deserve it just as much (as male athletes),” Glasco said during an interview with ESPN after Canady’s official visit. “She worked so hard to be the No. 1 pitcher in the country. … I left that meeting and thought, this is who I would love to put a lot of effort into because of who she is.”
Canady and her family met with Stanford’s collective during her standout freshman season to seek a better NIL contract moving forward in her career, but the Cardinal balked at the request, according to The Athletic. And that is what kickstarted the process of looking elsewhere and eventually making herself available in the transfer portal after her sophomore campaign.
According to The Athletic, her NIL deal with the Red Raiders is 10 times more that what many considered the starting price in the negotiation process.
Canady went 41-10 over her first two seasons at Stanford. This season, she has hit a stratospheric level of dominance. After Monday’s victory over the Sooners, Canady boosted her record to 30-5 with a 0.89 ERA. That includes a perfect record in the postseason for a team on a quest to win its first national championship.
Texas Tech is the first program in WCWS history to reach the championship series in its debut trip to Oklahoma City since, coincidentally, the Sooners did so in 2000. And ironically, the Red Raiders snapped a 37-game losing streak to Oklahoma to get to this point.
“I feel like people thought I heard the number and just came to Texas Tech, which wasn’t the case at all,” Canady said. “If I didn’t feel like Coach Glasco was an amazing coach and could lead this program to be where we thought it could be, I wouldn’t have come.”
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