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As we head into a new athletics year under the NIL era, a new bill has been signed into law in the state of Texas that could benefit Texas A&M and other universities in the state moving forward.

As announced on Thursday afternoon, Governor Greg Abbott signed a new NIL law that will allow athletes over 17 in the state to receive NIL contracts directly from a university. This bill also aligns with the House settlement that is yet to be approved. For Texas A&M and other in-state universities, it will allow them to avoid any potential lawsuits or compliance issues and compete for recruits in some ways others may not be able to just yet.

The implementation of the bill was first reported by KBTX senior sports writer Travis L. Brown via X:

Let’s cut straight to the facts: there is no denying the influence of NIL on all collegiate athletics and it continues to grow by the minute. The transfer portal has reached historic numbers since the decision was made to introduce financial gain for players for their name, image and likeness (NIL).

That was just the beginning of something way bigger than anyone ever thought could happen in the sport. Some college athletes, like UCLA quarterback Nico Lamaleava, are making millions of dollars before they even reach the National Football League, which has always been the goal of most athletes, historically speaking.

Now, what is stopping players from just managing their finances in college and then retiring? Is that going to cause a shortage of athletes in the NFL? Or, will the professional football league continue to blossom? That is still to be determined.

For now, the House vs. NCAA antitrust lawsuit remains in full swing, with seemingly no end in sight just yet. The proposed, and now imposed, bill in the state of Texas protects universities in the state in more ways than one, while also providing a slight edge in recruiting as well.

The world of NIL and the transfer portal is something that will change rapidly and often. As new bills are signed or rejected, there seems to be some major miscommunications between the House and the NCAA that could be detrimental for all parties if not solved.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.

By Stacy M. Brown, Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

NiJaree Canady, a 22-year-old African American softball phenom, has become the first college softball player to sign a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal worth more than $1 million, a historic moment in collegiate sports. The former Stanford ace transferred to Texas Tech, where she secured a groundbreaking $1,050,024 one-year contract through the Matador Club, an NIL collective affiliated with the university. The deal includes a $1 million direct payment, $50,000 for living expenses, and an additional $24 in honor of her jersey number. According to BlackNews.com, Canady, who was named the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, entered the transfer portal shortly before Texas Tech hired Coach Gerry Glasco. He acted quickly to bring her to Lubbock—with backing from NFL quarterback and Red Raider alum Patrick Mahomes—and offered her not just a starting role but an expanded opportunity to develop her offensive skills. “The coaching staff and their vision were a major reason I made this decision,” Canady told ESPN. She described her transition from Stanford’s Palo Alto campus to West Texas as smooth, noting that the environment reminds her more of her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.

USA Today noted that Canady’s impact on the field was immediate and unmatched. Despite suffering a minor injury, she helped lead Texas Tech to its first Big 12 regular-season and conference titles, finishing the season with a 26-5 record and a nation-leading ERA of 0.86. She also threw a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts to deliver the program’s first-ever win at the Women’s College World Series. Coach Glasco called Canady the best pitcher he’s ever coached and said he believes she can lead Texas Tech to a national championship. Her resume is as stacked as her fastball is deadly. In addition to her 2024 USA Softball Player of the Year honor, Canady received the Honda Sport Award, was a two-time Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team selection and dominated at Stanford with a 41-10 record and a 0.67 ERA over two seasons. She also represented Team USA in the 2024 Japan All-Star Series.

Before college, Canady was a standout at Topeka High School, where she was a two-time Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year and led her team to back-to-back state championships. She graduated in 2022 and was ranked as the No. 11 softball recruit in the nation by Extra Innings Softball. Off the field, she’s equally grounded—an academic All-American who enjoys reading and spending time with her dog. She is the daughter of Bruce and Katherine Canady, and her brother Bruce Jr. plays football at Cal. Canady’s NIL deal not only sets a new benchmark for college softball but also signals a shift in opportunities for Black female athletes in a space that other demographics have long dominated. “She’s changing the game—literally and financially,” Coach Glasco said.

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Pat Summitt and Muffet McGraw had a pretty dynamic professional relationship. Summitt’s Lady Vols relentlessly beat McGraw’s Fighting Irish for 20 games before Notre Dame knocked Tennessee out of the Elite Eight in 2011; Summitt retired the following year after announcing her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s, so the teams never had another rematch.

Summitt, who always pushed for the women’s game to be the best it possibly could for everyone (really, everyone) involved, would have her reservations about the current transfer portal system, McGraw said in an interview this week. While she would be thrilled players are able to make money through NIL brand deals, teams having the ability to recruit and court through the portal would give her pause.

“She would be turning people in, because she was somebody that was like… she’s going to follow the rules, and if you’re not going to follow them, she’s going to let somebody know, because she wanted the game to have that purity that the men’s sport has lost,” McGraw said.

And if Summitt didn’t like something about the transfer portal, she would also be the first person to do something about it. “I don’t think she would like where we are right now, but I think she would be at the forefront of people saying, ‘This is where we’ve got to do this, this is how we fix it. This is the kind of legislation we need,’ and she would be trying to put in some rules and some guidelines that everybody could follow.”

NCAA coaches have voiced their concerns about the transfer portal in recent years

While the transfer portal offers athletes a lot more agency than they’ve had in the past, it also means coaches and schools are constantly having to re-entice players to make sure they can keep their teams together. In some ways, that’s not a bad thing — it keeps schools from mistreating athletes, because it’s so easy for them to leave, and it also means that programs are challenged to continue to operate at the highest possible level — but in others, it causes disruption and even animosity among teammates.

In April, North Carolina’s Nyla Harris spoke to High Post Hoops about her own transfer portal process. Entering the portal at the end of the 2024-25 season gave her the ability to understand the game (and college coaches) in a different way. “I think the one thing that I can tell about a coach now that I’ve been through the portal experience is whether or not they’re genuine,” she explained. “I don’t even have to be looking at them face-to-face, I can just hear it through your voice.”

The portal also makes it easy to “see who really needs you and who really wants you,” she added. It was clear that some schools weren’t as interested in Nyla Harris the person as much as they were interested in Nyla Harris the hooper. “It’s like speed dating,” she joked. “You don’t really take the time to get to know someone because you only have this little amount of time to be able to build a relationship and possibly visit [a school].”

But the portal isn’t always that great for coaches. In March 2025, while his team was busy fighting it out on the court during March Madness, Coach Geno Auriemma (another major basketball foe of Summitt and Tennessee) admitted the portal is a kind of “big cloud” that weighs on what’s still happening during the season. The timing is a huge part of the problem, he explained.

“Do you think the NBA will ever have open free agency during the NBA Playoffs? I doubt that,” Auriemma told reporters. “It’s got to be sometime after all this is over. It’s got to be when the schools have finished playing. There’s got to be some sort of way to track and monitor and penalize tampering like there is the NBA. There’s got to be a guideline of what you can do in free agency, which is basically what it is.”

CHATTANOOGA (June 5, 2025) – Fresh off claiming the 2025 NIT title, the Chattanooga Mocs men’s tennis program and head coach Chuck Merzbacher secured its first transfer commitment of the 2025-26 cycle, landing Argentinean Martin Delnido from Abilene Christian via the portal route.
 
A sophomore during the most recent 2025 season, Delnido made a team-high 21 dual appearances in singles action and finished the campaign with an 11-10 overall record. The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Freshman of the Year in 2024, Delnido finished 10-3 overall in singles play and finished his rookie season by winning eight-straight matches with six coming in straight sets.
 
“We are excited to announce Martin Delnido will join the program this fall. He has gained valuable collegiate playing experience winning a conference championship (WAC), and competing in the NCAA Team Championships,” said head coach Merzbacher, who will enter his ninth season at UTC in 2025-26.
 
Delnido helped ACU finished 13-11 overall in 2025 while the team claimed the WAC Tournament title to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament this past May. During his international scholastic career, Delnido peaked as high as No. 174 in the ITF Junior Rankings in January 2023.
 
Merzbacher added, “Martin is dedicated to working on his game, competing, and getting better. His impressive summer playing schedule will ‘no doubt’ help him bolster our line-up when he arrives. I look forward to working with him.”
 
The men’s tennis program will continue its offseason schedule over the summer weeks and months in preparation for the 2025-26 season kicking off this fall. Stick to GoMocs.com for additional transfer commitment announcements, schedule updates and more.

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