Over the years, we’ve seen some pretty incredible sports contract deals struck with major stars in the professional sports leagues in America.
In 2023, Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani rewrote history books as the highest-paid athlete in the world with a lucrative 10-year, $700 million contract.
The contract is the largest to ever be signed in baseball, and at $70 million per year, Ohtani is likely one of the richest athletes who’s ever lived.
Similarly, we’ve seen professional athletes like Patrick Mahomes (10 years, $450 million) and Jaylen Brown (five years, $304 million) sign incredibly valuable contracts in the NFL and NBA, respectively. However, thanks to the rule changes in the NCAA, we are starting to see college athletes approach, and even surpass high-end six-figure deals.
Star quarterbacks and other various football players seem to be the most common big-ticket names out there in NIL deals, but recently, the market was reset by a female athlete.
College softball is one of the fastest-rising sports in America, and its biggest star is NiJaree Canady, a two-time All-American pitcher for the Stanford Cardinal. The reigning USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, Canady led the nation in ERA (0.73) and strikeouts (337) as a sophomore last season and boasts an incredible 41-10 record as a starter. In two seasons, Canady tossed 365.2 IP and 34 complete games, totaling an absurd 555 strikeouts to just 65 walks, with 35 earned runs and just 180 hits allowed.
Then, she entered the transfer portal, sparking an NIL bidding war the likes of which softball had never seen. Justin Williams and Stewart Mandel captured the scope of Canady’s recruitment in a story from The Athletic titled, “The unprecedented million-dollar recruitment of the nation’s best softball player.”
In just two sentences, you’ll realize just how profound Canady’s situation is.
“By the time Stanford reached a second straight WCWS last month, all parties realized a bidding war was coming for Canady’s right arm — but few outside of Lubbock could have predicted the final sale price,” the article reads. “The going rate for a star pitcher in the portal was believed to be in the $100,000-$150,000 range.”
While something like $100,000 or $150,000 would’ve put Canady in the top 1% of earners in college softball, Texas Tech went above and beyond to land her services, inking her to a one-year deal worth $1,050,024.
According to The Athletic, the $24 is for her jersey number, $50,000 is for her living expenses in Lubbock, and the rest of the money, a sweet $1 million, is for her. That doesn’t just make her the highest-paid college softball player in the country, it does so by a wide margin.
“She deserves it,” John Sellers, co-founder of the Matador Club, told The Athletic. “She’s a complete game-changer for any program, but especially a place like [Texas] Tech.”
With Canady now in the circle in Lubbock, the Red Raiders immediately become one of the teams to beat in the Big 12, even with programs like Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Arizona all having established programs that entered the offseason in a better position.
Head coach Gerry Glasco, who comes over from Louisana, now has the best roster cornerstone in America.
Landing a player of Canady’s talent does put the pressure on to succeed, but Glasco brings all kinds of success with him from Lafayette.
In seven seasons with the Ragin’ Cajuns, Glasco put together a 300-88 record and won the Sun Belt Conference every season he was in charge.
“It was absolutely amazing to me to see how the entire athletic department jumped in to help us recruit,” said Glasco. “When NiJa first got here, I think there was a lot of skepticism that she might not like this place, this is a waste of her time. And the minute she walked on campus and saw the beauty, felt the love, things just clicked and we got the result that we got.”
