Former Stanford University softball ace NiJaree Canady made waves when she announced on July 24 that she would join the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock. Her reported NIL deal could signify that softball is emerging as the next big thing in women’s sports.
According to The Athletic, Canady’s deal is reportedly for one year and is in excess of $1 million, officially coming in at $1,050,024 with Texas Tech’s NIL collective Matador Club for signing with the team.
John Sellers, the co-founder of the Matador Club, told the outlet what the signing means for both parties. “It’s a game-changer for softball, and even beyond that, she (Canady) could have gone anywhere, but she’s coming to Tech.”
According to Blake Lawrence, the CEO of Opendorse, a company that facilitates and manages NIL deals, the deal is “unprecedented.”
“It’s absolutely unprecedented, for an annual compensation for a D-I softball
player. This is 10 times higher than the biggest figures we have seen at Opendorse for college softball players. (The previous high was estimated at $175,000) There are very few six-figure players, and they are barely into the six figures.” Lawrence told The Athletic.Canady is, in no uncertain terms, a superstar; her ERA over her first two years at Stanford was exceptional. In her freshman season it was 0.57 and in her sophomore year, it was 0.65, both were tops in the nation. Further proof of her complete dominance is last season’s strikeout numbers; she amassed a staggering 337 strikeouts across just barely over 230 innings.
Unsurprisingly, Canady was last season’s USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.
“NiJa is already throwing as fast as I was a pro. Her limit does not exist. I think she could potentially reach 80 (mph). I don’t know — can
NiJa be the Caitlin Clark of softball? I kind of believe she can,” former Tennessee pitcher Monica Abbott, current Guinness Book of World Records holder for the fastest softball pitch, told The Athletic in May.After announcing her move to Texas Tech, Canady told ESPN that women’s sports deserve to be invested in because it will pay off on the back end.
“I could never have imagined this,” Canady said. “But I feel like we need to invest in women’s sports. We saw it with women’s basketball this year: You invest in women’s sports and women’s basketball just blew up on a national stage. I think the same thing has happened with softball…If I’m even a little 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 in and a lot of good players from Louisiana. They’re all studs and they looked really good. To be able to compete in the Big 12…I think that will be fun.”
Softball’s rise has been explicitly tied to the compelling nature of Canady’s performances, and like Clark, she does not shy away from unleashing her emotions when she deems it necessary.
“I feel like I show my emotion a lot on the mound,” Canady told the outlet in May. “Especially if it’s a good battle.”
Like the WNBA, what has triggered the explosion of softball and other women’s sports currently experiencing a boom in popularity is a combination of star power, television placement, and the work of the women who paved the way before them paying off.
Natasha Watley, a four-time first-team All-American at UCLA and a two-time Olympian who currently runs a foundation dedicated to increasing diversity in softball told The Athletic
that before her transfer to Texas Tech, Canady was the key to that because of her visibility and popularity.“I have a young daughter now; to see a Black pitcher at Stanford University – that’s normal. That wasn’t the norm for me,” Watley said. “I don’t know if she realizes how powerful it is.”
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