LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 12-seed Red Raiders (50-12) will make another trip to Oklahoma City this weekend but this time on the biggest stage in the sport. Texas Tech is heading to its first Women’s College World Series in program history this weekend, continuing its list of historic accomplishments this season. Tech will face Ole Miss (42-19) at 6 p.m. on Thursday in Session 2 of the WCWS.
 
 It will be a battle of first-time programs as this is the Rebels first appearance in OKC as well. Ole Miss advanced out of the Tucson Regional, taking down No. 13 Arizona before defeating No. 4 Arkansas in the Super Regional on Sunday. Tech is 1-2 all time against Ole Miss but haven’t played them since the 2001 season.
 
Previously in Tech softball:
 
Texas Tech’s historic season began another chapter as the Red Raiders advanced to their first ever WCWS. So far, Tech has done several ‘firsts’ including winning the Big 12 Regular Season, Big 12 Tournament, hosting a Regional, advancing to a Super Regional and ultimately winning a Super Regional.
 
NiJaree Canady is still at the top of her game. She boasts a 0.89 ERA and is 30-5 on the season. Her ERA is first in the nation and her wins are second most in program history for a season. Canady was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and a POTY Top 3 Finalist. The junior has also swung the bat more this season, leading the team with 11 home runs.
 
Senior outfielder Demi Elder has been a huge lift for the Red Raider offense since returning to the starting lineup. Since Elder’s return the team is 27-3 and she has reached base safely in 26 of those 30 games.
 
Mihyia Davis continues to prove why she is one of the best outfielders in the country. The junior speedster has also been hitting for power lately, totaling a career-high five home runs to go along with 10 doubles and 6 triples while swiping 26 bases. Davis is not only a good bat, but a highlight reel in the outfield as she was Big 12 All-First Team and Big 12 All-Defensive Team. Davis has also tied the program record for runs in a season (63) and is second in program history for hits in a season (85).
 
The left side of Gerry Glasco‘s infield is played by freshmen. Hailey Toney has started every game at shortstop this season – the only freshman from a power four school to do so – while Bailey Lindemuth has played 60 of her 62 games at third base (the other two coming in the circle). Both were named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team.
 
The WCWS bracket can be found here.
 

The football coaches you see wearing headsets on Saturdays were once wearing helmets on college football fields. Of the 136 FBS coaches, 123 played some form of college football. Mark Stoops will readily tell you that he was not among the best of the best, but he is keeping company with some familiar names who played at a high level.

“I was not very impressive as a player—that’s for sure,” Stoops joked before the Cats played his alma mater in the 2021 Citrus Bowl. “I loved my time there—did the best I could.”

Long before he was the Kentucky head coach, Stoops was a three-year letter winner at Iowa. The third of three Stoops brothers to play for Hayden Fry, he was the only one who did not earn All-Big Ten honors. You can blame injury luck. The undersized defensive back had a pair of interceptions, but a knee injury ended his career before he could reach the same heights as his brothers.

Even so, he was a key contributor for teams that reached the postseason. Stoops missed a Rose Bowl appearance by just one year.

When ESPN ranked all of the FBS coaches as college players, one of Stoops’ teammates made the cut, Bret Bielema. A little younger than Mark, Bielema was a walk-on who earned a scholarship for Hayden Fry. The defensive lineman was a part of the 1990 Big Ten Title team. Once their playing days were done, the two coaches would make recruiting trips together to save money, even though they coached at different schools. Instead of spending all of their per diem money on a nice hotel, they shared a room together at the gambling parlor.

“We went to a casino and we won a little bit; at that time, we thought we were really rolling in it,” Bielema said back in 2016.

Bielema and Stoops were among the eight Power Four key contributors who ranked just outside of the Top 30 on ESPN’s list. They’re in a class with a few other familiar names: Jon Sumrall (Kentucky), Shane Beamer (Virginia Tech), Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia), and Frank Reich (Maryland). That’s a motley crew.

This exercise is a friendly reminder that not all great players are great coaches, but there are quite a few impressive names from the past leading FBS programs. Good luck passing Deion Sanders or Eddie George anytime soon.

[ESPN: Ranking all college football head coaches as players]

COMMERCE – Four East Texas A&M University softball players were named to the Academic All-District team, as selected by the College Sports Communicators, on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Charli Anger (Lubbock – Cooper), Emma Rodrigues (Little Elm – John Paul II), Stephanie Tapia (Yuma, Ariz.), and Tatum Wright (Frisco – Centennial) have earned the honor for the first time in their Lion careers.
 
The four honorees for the Lions are the most for any program in the Southland Conference.
 

Anger is a kinesiology & sport studies major, having earned President’s List honors and has been named to the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll. She appeared in 49 games this season, starting 48 and hit .240 with four home runs and 23 RBIs, which was second on the team.
 
Rodrigues started every game for the Lions last season and is a general studies major. She has been named to the dean’s list and hit .292 with seven home runs and 11 RBIs. She also went 12 for 14 in stolen base attempts.
 

Tapia graduated with her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology & sport studies following the spring semester. She has been named to the dean’s list and the SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll. Tapia finished the season ranking second on the team in home runs with nine and hit .236 on the season with 20 RBIs, appeared in 48 games and starting 46.
 
Wright was named to second team all-Southland and finished the season being the conference leader in home runs during conference play. She led the team with 12 home runs, 35 RBIs, while hitting .303 in 42 games. Wright is a biological sciences major and has been named to the dean’s list and the SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
 
The quartet led the Lions to their first postseason appearance in the Division I era, while setting the record for most wins in the Division I era.
 
Wright advances to the national ballot for the Academic All-America team. The CSC Academic All-America teams will be released on June 17. The full list of CSC Academic All-District honorees can be found HERE.

 

-ETAMU-

It is no secret that NIL spending is up across the board this college football offseason. But Texas coach Steve Sarkisian pushed back on the report from earlier this spring that his Longhorns dished out $35-40 million across what they hope to be a national championship squad. Sarkisian’s denial of the massive payroll came after 247Sports’ Chip Brown reported the $40 million price tag was an inaccurate figure.

“What’s frustrating on that is it was a little bit of irresponsible reporting,” Sarkisian told SiriusXM of the initial Houston Chronicle report. “It was one anonymous source said that was what our roster was. I wish I had $40 million on our roster. We’d probably be a little bit better team than we are.”

While Texas is insistent that it did not spend that exorbitant amount of money to build its 2025 team, others detailed that the top of the college football market reached approximately $40 million during the 2025 recruiting and transfer portal cycles. Indiana’s Curt Cignetti said to CBS Sports this spring that many of the top programs allocated tens of millions to their talent acquisition efforts.

The surge in NIL distribution across college football is a response to the looming NCAA vs. House settlement, which will soon limit the amount of money programs can funnel to their rosters. The settlement will institute a revenue-sharing model in which schools have approximately $20 million to directly pay their athletes across all sports.

“What’s crazy about this day and age that you guys operate in — and I’ve watched this for 25 years now — the evolution of Twitter and social media and podcasts; one guy writes an article from an anonymous source that says that’s what our roster is,” said Sarkisian. “Everybody ran with it. And I’m talking real publications ran with it. And it’s like, ‘That’s what’s going on at Texas.’ Nobody asked me one question. Like, okay, sure. But if that’s what you think, that’s fine. If that’s the narrative you want to paint for our team, that’s fine.”

Texas, on paper, boasts one of the most talent-rich rosters in the nation ahead of the 2025 season. Potential superstar Arch Manning is on the precipice of his first full seasons as the Longhorns’ starting quarterback and boasts a bevy of returning playmakers around him. That is in addition to the program’s first top-ranked high school recruiting class, which will arrive on campus in full this summer.

Even if that crop of talent did not cost Texas $40 million, the reality is that it was not free.

“The idea to think that a lot of other schools are spending money to get players, I mean, it’s the state of college football right now,” Sarkisian said. “It is what it is. Hey, we’re fortunate. Don’t get me wrong. We’ve got great support. Chris Del Conte, our athletic director, does a fantastic job. And our donors, and people are excited and we’ve been to the CFP two years in a row and we’ve had, I don’t know, 20-something guys drafted the last two years. So it’s been great. It’s been a great run.

“I wish I had about another $15 million or so, though. Might have a little better roster.”