Business and Finance
Nijaree Canady reportedly receives ‘unprecedented’ NIL deal
Former Stanford University softball ace NiJaree Canady caused a stir when she announced on July 24 that she could be joining the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock. Her rumored NIL contract could mean softball is becoming the subsequent big thing in women’s sports.
Canady’s contract is reportedly for one 12 months and is value greater than $1 million. it’s officially coming for the quantity of $1,050,024 from the NIL Matador Club of Texas Tech for signing a contract with the team.
John Sellers, co-founder of the Matador Club, told the outlet what the signing means for either side. “It’s groundbreaking for softball, and she (Canady) could have gone anywhere, but she’s coming to Tech.”
According to Blake Lawrence, CEO of Opendorse, an organization that facilitates and manages NIL transactions, the transaction is “unprecedented.”
“This is absolutely unprecedented for an annual salary for a DI softball player. It’s 10 times more than the highest we’ve seen on Opendorse for a college softball player. (The previous record was $175,000.) There are very few players with six-figure salaries and they barely break six figures,” Lawrence said.
Canady is, and not using a shadow of a doubt, a superstar; her ERA in her first two years at Stanford was exceptional. Her first season was 0.57 and her second 12 months 0.65, each best within the country. Further evidence of her total dominance is her strikeout numbers last season; she amassed a staggering 337 strikeouts in only 230 innings.
It’s no wonder Canady was named the U.S. Academic Softball Player of the Year last season.
“NiJa is already throwing as fast as I was as a pro. There’s no limit to her. I think she could potentially hit 80 (mph). I don’t know — could NiJa be the Caitlin Clark of softball? I kind of believe she could,” former Tennessee pitcher Monica Abbott, the present Guinness World Record holder for the fastest softball pitch, said in May.
After Announcing her transfer to Texas Tech, Canady told ESPN that ladies’s sports deserve investment because it’s going to repay in the long term.
“I would have never imagined it,” Canady said. “But I feel like we have to invest in women’s sports. We saw that with women’s basketball this year: You invest in women’s sports, and women’s basketball just explodes nationally. I think the same thing happened with softball. … If I can be a small part of that, that’s my whole dream.”
Canady continued, “My goal every year is to win the Women’s College World Series, so that’s my goal right now. I think there’s a good young core coming up and a lot of good players from Louisiana. They’re all stars and they looked really good. To be able to compete in the Big 12 … I think it’s going to be cool.”
The softball success is clearly tied to the engaging performances of Canady, who, like Clark, shouldn’t be afraid to let off steam when she feels it’s crucial.
“I feel like I show my emotions on the mound a lot,” Canady said in May. “Especially if it’s a good fight.”
Much just like the WNBA, the explanation softball and other women’s sports are so rapidly growing into the large time is a mixture of stardom, TV exposure and the work of girls who paved the best way for them before it paid off.
Natasha Watley, a four-time first-team All-American at UCLA and a two-time Olympian who now runs a foundation that works to extend diversity in softball, said that before she transferred to Texas Tech, Canady was key to that success due to her name recognition and recognition.
“I have a little girl now; to see a black pitcher at Stanford — that’s normal. That wasn’t normal for me,” Watley said. “I don’t know if she realizes how powerful that is.”