Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff WriterJul 24, 2024, 04:32 PM ET
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- Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
Former Stanford pitcher NiJaree Canady, the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, has committed to Texas Tech out of the transfer portal and will join the Red Raiders next spring on a record-breaking name, image and likeness deal set to shake the world of college softball, she told ESPN on Wednesday.
Canady entered the portal on June 17 after leading Stanford to back-to-back Women's College World Series appearances in 2023 and 2024, carrying an 0.67 ERA with 555 strikeouts in 365⅔ innings across her freshman and sophom*ore seasons with the Cardinal.
Her NIL agreement with Texas Tech will reach seven figures annually, a source told ESPN. It's an unprecedented deal for a college softball player made possible by Texas Tech boosters John and Tracy Sellers.
These past two years have been amazing and I thank @StanfordSball for the ride of a lifetime. Excited for what's ahead! @TexasTechSB pic.twitter.com/C017QT51Gp
— NiJaree Canady (@CanadyNijaree) July 24, 2024
Canady, a right-hander from Topeka, Kansas, transfers to Texas Tech with two years of eligibility remaining, and represents a monumental offseason addition for first-year coach Gerry Glasco, who was hired in Lubbock in June following seven seasons at Louisiana.
Canady's commitment brings a close to the most hotly followed portal recruitment since the end of the 2024 softball season. The 2024 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year confirmed she took trips to Tennessee, Alabama, UCLA and Kansas over the past month before closing with a visit to the Red Raiders this week. By Wednesday, Canady had narrowed her decision to a return to Stanford or a move to Texas Tech. She ultimately committed to the Red Raiders before leaving Lubbock, swayed by Glasco's vision for a program that has never reached the Women's College World Series in its history.
"I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me was just how many players started following him in the days and weeks after [Glasco arrived at Texas Tech]," Canady told ESPN. "... Some kids even chose no contact when they hit the portal because they knew they wanted to follow him wherever he went. I think that speaks highly of him as a coach."
Along with Glasco's pitch, Canady pointed to NIL as a factor for all transfers to consider in the modern age of college athletics and acknowledged its role in her decision-making process.
Canady's agreement with the Red Raiders topped a six-figure offer from Stanford that would have made her the highest-paid women's athlete in school history, sources told ESPN. Canady also pointed to potential opportunities at Texas Tech through a recently announced deal between the school, Adidas, and Kansas City Chiefs and former Red Raiders quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
"I could never have imagined this," Canady told ESPN. "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 now heads to Texas Tech after leading the nation with a 0.73 ERA and 337 strikeouts in 2024, tallying a 24-7 record in the circle during her sophom*ore season at Stanford. Emerging as one of the top pitchers in college softball across two seasons with the Cardinal, Canady was the guiding force in taking the program to its first pair of Women's College World Series appearances since 2004 under seventh-year coach Jessica Allister.
"These past two years at Stanford have been nothing but incredible -- I truly mean that," Canady said. "I love my coaches and teammates. It's been the ride of a lifetime and I wouldn't trade those two years for anything."
Canady's next challenge will come leading a Texas Tech program that has reached the NCAA tournament only six times in program history, set to navigate a Big 12 conference now missing previous league front-runners Oklahoma and Texas in 2025. The Red Raiders closed the 2024 season with a 29-21 record under Craig Snider, who resigned to take an assistant role at Tennessee after two seasons at Texas Tech.
Glasco arrived to take over the Red Raiders last month after leading Louisiana to a 45-19 record last spring, including a win over eventual national champion Oklahoma on March 3. The Ragin' Cajuns reached the NCAA tournament six times under Glasco's leadership, emerging as perennial Sun Belt contenders while notching a .773 winning percentage across his seven seasons in charge.
Canady will open next spring cemented as the ace of a Red Raiders staff that is set to include four other pitchers in 2025, including transfer Chloe Riassetto, who went 11-2 with a 2.21 career ERA over two seasons at Louisiana. Altogether, Canady represents the ninth and most high-profile transfer addition of Texas Tech's offseason, a group that includes five players who followed Glasco from the Ragin' Cajuns.
Questions remain over whether the Red Raiders have a roster capable of making a deep NCAA tournament run in 2025. But on the heels of Canady's seismic commitment, Texas Tech will embark on 2025 with a Women's College World Series-caliber ace in the circle and the eyes of the softball world locked on Lubbock.
"My goal every year is to win the Women's College World Series, so that's my goal right now," Canady said. "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."
