Texas Tech Dominating Recruiting in Football, Softball

What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.

This week, Texas Tech softball is making waves again and the reality is much more interesting than the controversy.

TEXAS TECH SOFTBALL’S HUGE WEEK

Texas Tech softball just wrapped up an epic season in which it won its first Big 12 title, reached the Women’s College World Series for the first time and reach the WCWS championship series, where Tech lost to Texas in three games.

So, what did Texas Tech do for an encore? Attack the transfer portal like Tom Cruise plans Mission: Impossible stunts.

By Thursday, the Lady Raiders had done this in the transfer portal.

That’s four of the Top 30 players in the transfer portal. Then, late Thursday, they made waves again by luring Tennessee transfer Taylor Pannell, a fourth Top 10 transfer.

That got folks up in Knoxville all up in their feels. How dare a Lady Vol head to … Lubbock?

Naturally, everyone thinks it’s about NIL money and, well, that’s not entirely inaccurate.

Maren Angus-Coombs at Softball On SI wrote about Texas Tech’s work in the transfer portal she put together a solid piece on how it’s all gone down. Yes, NIL is part of the deal. But some on social media have accused Texas Tech of tampering with players.

She reported that Texas Tech was not contacting players while they were still at their schools. But she also reported this:

The Matador Club, Texas Tech’s Name, Image and Likeness collective, and coach Nathan Nelson of Hotshots Fastpitch, a travel organization based in Texas, have reportedly been heavily involved in this process.

There are NCAA rules preventing schools and coaches like Tech’s Gerry Glasco from contacting players at other schools. Those same rules apply in professional sports. But third parties aren’t barred from doing so. Angus-Coombs made that clear in her reporting, too. So, you may not like it, but there’s no rule against it. Her reporting was extensive. Another paragraph:

Ten sources confirmed with Softball On SI that Nelson or The Matador Club also contacted Taylor Pannell, Isa Torres, Dakota Kennedy, Reese Atwood, Kasidi Pickering, Maci Bergeron, Dez Spearman, and Tori Edwards.

The article made clear that Texas Tech hasn’t broken any rules. The Matador Club hasn’t, either. It’s a loophole. As you might expect, there were plenty of takes. I have a few.

Blue Bloods Get Taste of Their Own Medicine

First, the pearl-clutching is on a level that is hard to wrap one’s brain around. I mean, we’re going to act like this isn’t happening in every major college sport? How on earth do you think Lincoln Riley got from Oklahoma to USC so fast a few years ago? His agent laid the groundwork for two months. That’s how it works for coaches. That’s why they have agents.

Many of these players have representation now. It’s not their right to allow their agents to work for them while they play to see if there is a better deal out there? I’ve covered college and pro athletes for decades. They can survey the field and still stay focused on their job. It’s actually not that hard.

This sort of thing been happening since NIL started. While I’m certainly a rule-follower, the rules around NIL since the Alston ruling in June of 2021 have basically been non-existent. Even now, with the House settlement complete and NIL Go getting on the ground, many things are still up in the air.

Second, Nelson’s reported involvement got a lot of attention (he didn’t comment for the story). He coached four of the players with Hotshots, per the article.

So? Do we need to discuss AAU basketball coaches “directing” players to certain programs for the past three decades? Or how new college football head coaches hire sitting high school head coaches for credibility with in-state recruits?

How do you think Joey McGuire got his foot in the door? Former Baylor coach Matt Rhule hired him out of Cedar Hill High School because he knew the respect level for McGuire in-state was off the charts. Same went for UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, then at Gilmer High School, when he was hired by Charlie Strong at Texas.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, Texas Tech just gave the country the best recruiting pitch possible. Texas Tech nearly won a national title and has the top pitcher in softball returning in NiJaree Canady on a reported $1.2 million NIL deal. Who wouldn’t want to play alongside her next season?

Will Howard didn’t just go to Ohio State because he knew he wasn’t going to play at Kansas State in 2024. He wanted a shot at a national title. And he got one. Winning is still the ultimate aphrodisiac.

So, what is this REALLY about? To me it’s about two things — it’s not football and it’s TEXAS TECH?! Yes, it’s Texas Tech, and they’ve been building for this right under your noses.

I’ve lived in Texas most of my life. Growing up, it was either Texas or Texas A&M for most kids, unless they had a direct tie to a school like Tech. When you become an adult, that changes. For instance, my niece just graduated from Tech with a degree in Kinesiology. She’s Guns Up all day now. But before that? She barely talked about Tech. She got there because her high school powerlifting coach went to Tech. Yes, my niece can probably beat up your niece.

We forget that it’s been four years since Texas and Oklahoma announced they were leaving for the SEC. That was the same year as the Alston ruling. After the Big 12 opted to stay together and expand, some programs started to figure out there was a void to be filled. Tech was one of the first to start building for this new world.

That new football facility at Jones AT&T Stadium? That didn’t sprout up like a chia pet. That took years to accomplish, and athletic director Kirby Hocutt started planning for that shortly after the UT/OU schism.  

The Matador Club got started on NIL shortly after the Alston ruling. But, unlike most collectives at the time, it didn’t just focus on football. The Matador Club focused on football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball to begin with. It distributed equal stipends to athletes in those sports. Word started getting around.

When I talked to Lady Raiders basketball coach Krista Gerlich about it a few years ago at Big 12 media days, the appreciation was clear. So was the acknowledgement that, at the time, most of her other colleagues didn’t have that level of support.

This isn’t happening just because uber-booster Cody Campbell has a bag (well, he actually has bags to spare these days). This is happening because that community is committed to each of its sports, not JUST the ones that bring in all the revenue. Yes, the football transfer portal class at Tech is insane too. Should Tech’s softball transfer class be just as loco?

That’s where the other double-standard comes in. Much has been written about Tech’s football transfer class, including here at Heartland College Sports. It’s been written about like “this is just how it works now” and that’s true. Between NIL, recruiting pitches and impending revenue-share the Red Raiders put together a mammoth class.

But, this is softball, so heaven forbid a school attack the portal with the same vigor, right? And heaven forbid it be a school like Texas Tech, which isn’t a “university of.” And the NIL money? Gulp. Shouldn’t that go to football? It almost feels like there’s a hint of “know your place” going on here.

So, what’s good for football isn’t as good for softball? No, sir. It’s just as good for both, and if Tech’s collectives want to bankroll both, what’s the problem?

I think that’s part of the problem — the acceptability of spending on football and not on other sports.

I’m sure the rules around third-party involvement in these recruitments will change at some point. That’s how this works. Loopholes are found, exploited and closed.

But, for now, no one is really doing anything wrong here. They’re not breaking the rules. We can have a longer discussion about ethics, if you like. But this is what every athletic team and program has done since sports started — they’re pushing the envelope.

So while Tech’s building a softball superpower, make sure you don’t clutch those pearls so tight. They’re liable to leave a mark.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.