The Texas Tech Red Raiders announced themselves as a major player in college athletics’ revenue-sharing era on Friday with a historic football signing.

ESPN college football reporter Eli Lederman shared that 2026 five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo agreed to a staggering three-year, $5.1 million fully guaranteed contract for his commitment to Texas Tech.

According to 247Sports, Ojo is the top offensive tackle and No. 5 overall prospect in his class.

Per Lederman:

“The deal is believed to be one of the largest fully guaranteed revenue-sharing agreements in college football history under the recently approved federal settlement that allows college programs to pay their athletes directly.”

In February, ESPN’s Max Olson wrote about the program’s spending spree this offseason, which included On3.com’s top-ranked transfer portal class.

Per Olson, the Red Raiders spent over $10 million for its 2025 acquisitions, including linebacker David Bailey, defensive tackle Lee Hunter and running back Quinten Joyner.

Bailey led Stanford with seven sacks in 2024 and ranked fourth in NCAA in fumbles forced (five). Hunter tied for a UCF team-high 10 tackles for loss, while Joyner, a 2024 redshirt freshman at USC, averaged 7.6 yards per carry and scored four touchdowns last season. 

The Red Raiders aren’t solely spending heavily on their football roster.

As Lederman noted, Texas Tech softball pitcher NiJaree Canady also recently received her second million-dollar name, image and likeness deal with the university, another sign of the program’s serious push to establish itself as the premier Big 12 power.

A vacuum exists at the top following Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC. In 2024, Arizona State football won the conference after being picked to finish last in the preseason by Big 12 media, which canceled all future preseason polls as a result.

No one knows what to expect from the conference moving forward, but Texas Tech is putting itself in a position to emerge near the top with its splurge. Money can’t buy championships, but it provides teams an easier path to contention.

The Red Raiders are clearly hungry to add to their total. In 2024, men’s track and field won the NCAA Indoor Championships, marking the third NCAA title in Texas Tech history.

Men’s track and field also won an outdoor championship in 2019, while women’s basketball earned Texas Tech its first NCAA championship in 1993.

The softball team came painfully close to winning the women’s College World Series in June, losing to Texas, 2-1, in the best-of-three championship series.

ESPN’s Football Power Index isn’t too high on the football squad being nearly as competitive this fall. The Red Raiders have an 8-4 projected win-loss record and 10.3 percent chance of reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Texas Tech could be an afterthought on the gridiron in 2025, but Ojo’s massive signing is indicative of the program’s bright future.

The recent landmark House vs. NCAA settlement forever altered the college athletics landscape, and the Red Raiders have been one of the quickest to take advantage.

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: Jorhat emerged as the champion in the 32nd All Assam Aquatic Championship, which concluded at the Sarusajai Sports Complex in the city today. Jorhat dominated the competition, amassing a total of 56 gold, 51 silver, and 36 bronze medals.

Kamrup finished in second place with 35 gold, 38 silver, and 34 bronze medals, while Sivasagar secured third with 7 gold, 8 silver, and 13 bronze medals.

In water polo, Sivasagar took home the men’s and women’s titles, while Jorhat claimed the runners-up positions in both events.

Group Champions: 1. Men (open) – Banadip Medhi (Kamrup),  Women (open) – Disha Gogoi (Charaideo).  Group – I (Boys) – Sanskar Bhuyan (Jorhat),  Group – I (Girls) – Jahnabi Changmai (Kamrup). Group – II (Boys) – Prayash Gogoi (Jorhat) and Awad Aditya (Jorhat), Group – II (Girls) – Angarika Saikia (Jorhat)  and Bhoomika Kashyap (Jorhat).  Group- III (Boys)- Abhigyan Mohan (Jorhat),  Group-III (Girls) Kasturi Gogoi (Kamrup).

Also Read: Assam edge J&K 3-2 for second win in Sub-Junior Hockey Nationals

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UNIVERSITY PARK – Six State College Spikes pitchers combined to whiff 13 Williamsport Crosscutters on Thursday night as the Spikes drew within a half-game of the first-place Crosscutters with a 5-2 win at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

With eight games remaining on the MLB Draft League first-half schedule, the Spikes (11-10) are tied for third with the West Virginia Black Bears. The Crosscutters (12-10) remained in first place despite the loss, but now lead the Trenton Thunder (13-11) by only three percentage points.

Another stout mound effort powered the Spikes, beginning with the debuting Jacob Mayers. The LSU product, fresh off winning a national championship in Omaha and notching the win in the MLB Draft League’s 10-6 win over the Cape Cod League in Monday’s exhibition at Citi Field in New York, allowed just one run on four hits and one walk while striking out seven batters over four innings.

Caden Wooster (1-0) then struck out two batters and yielded just one walk and one hit batsman over two scoreless frames before Landon O’Donnell and Ethan Storm kept the Crosscutters off the board in the seventh. Jason Shockley then left the bases loaded with two strikeouts in the eighth before Treyson Peters (1) whiffed one batter in a one-hit ninth for the save.

Ryan Rivera got the offense going for State College with a two-run single in the first. Despite continuing his eight-game hitting streak, the longest active string in the MLB Draft League, Rivera saw his streak of multi-hit games finish at five after a 1-for-3 performance. The multi-hit streak finished one game shy of the Spikes record shared by Steven Ramos in 2013 and Trent Taylor in 2022.

Dan Tauken and Caden Shapiro added RBI singles for State College.

Williamsport starter Connor Knox (1-1) took the loss after giving up two runs on seven hits while recording five strikeouts.

Sean Miller paused, and you could almost hear his smile on the other end of the phone conversation.

“I really thought my life would look different,” the Grantham resident said. “I was going to get out of sports.”

Instead, the 2023 Lebanon High graduate and rising Vassar College (N.Y.) junior is all in, to the extent of winning the 800 meters at the recent All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference championships. The NCAA Division III competition included competitors from more than 50 schools.

Miller bested 34 opponents in a time of 1 minute, 51 seconds, less than a second slower than the mark needed to win that distance at the Division I Ivy League’s title meet. Not bad for a walk-on whose most extensive athletic experience at Lebanon was on the JV baseball team.

“I could score from second base on a single,” Miller said. “The problem was getting myself to second base.”

Miller played baseball through his junior year and fondly recalls throwing a “Vulcan changeup” while pitching. Its grip requires placing one’s middle and ring fingers on either side of the ball, similar to the Vulcan salute in “Star Trek.” A sharp, downward movement is supposed to result, and Miller said he had some success with the pitch, although perhaps not for intended reasons.

“I threw so slowly, it caught batters off-guard,” he said with a chuckle.

As a Raider senior, Miller joined outdoor track, in which he’d dabbled as a freshman. Some of his friends were distance runners and he’d begun joining them on training runs, in part for the camaraderie. With graduation approaching, however, he cut his 800 time down to 1:59 and was part of a 4×800 relay team that won a state title and set a school record.

“He went from holding on to trying to win races,” said Lebanon coach Kevin Lozeau, who urged Miller to make a late attempt to run in college. “If you put in the work and stay healthy, sometimes things go the right way.”

Miller, whose parents met as runners at Swarthmore College (Pa.) and who’d earned an early-decision acceptance at academically rigorous Vassar, exchanged emails with Brewers coach James McCowan, who said Miller should walk on to the cross country team and they’d see how things went.

That’s usually where it ends for unrecruited runners, many of whom either aren’t good enough athletes or can’t withstand the physical and psychological demands of the college level.

“It’s a lot of running; he logged 50 to 60 miles a week as a freshman and never missed a (weightlifting session),” McCowan said. “I wasn’t sure how he’d respond with such limited training in the past.”

Miller vigorously followed McCowan’s summer workout instructions in the months leading up to his Vassar matriculation and qualified for NCAA regional cross country competition. At times, he’s startled his coach with his ambitious goals, but has gone on to achieve almost all of them.

“He was definitely a diamond in the rough,” McCowan said. “But he leaned into the whole process. You want the fastest kids, but you also want ones like Sean, who want to be part of something bigger than themselves.”

Miller’s intelligence and warm personality helped get him in the door, and his genetics and work ethic have done the rest. Along with a touch of naïveté.

“A little bit of ignorance helped him, because he didn’t really know it was supposed to be that difficult,” McCowan said. “He hasn’t been intimidated by running in college, which is fun to watch.”

Miller’s on the verge of breaking Vassar’s 800-meter record and wants to qualify for national competition in indoor and outdoor track. And there’s always the lure of running a sub-4-minute mile.

“My mentality is I have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Miller said. “I’m not sure what running will hold, but it’s a huge part of my life.”

Tris Wykes can be reached at ctwykes@aol.com.

High school, Sports

July 5, 2025

By By JASON BLACK For MVI Sports 

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