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Softball Question: Why not pour money into softball?
The Women’s College World Series was great theater. Texas beat Texas Tech, 10-4, last night in a decisive third game of the championship series. It was the Longhorns’ first title.
Nearly as big a highlight came in the semifinals, when Texas Tech ended Oklahoma’s four-year championship streak. As this captivating tournament ends, the runners-up raise a compelling point about what should happen next.
The Red Raiders were onto something this year. Just as Tech boosters have plowed money into football players the past few years, they have rallied around softball of late. The key to Tech’s run was NiJaree Canady, the pitcher who came close to throwing every single pitch of the team’s postseason run. She started her career at Stanford and was a star there, winning USA Softball Player of the Year in 2024. Tech’s people offered her $1 million to leave Palo Alto for Lubbock, and after an intense recruitment (chronicled in detail by The Athletic), she took them up on it.
It was a savvy investment, so much so that she has just agreed to another seven figures to stay for next year. Canady has become the face of the sport, even a potential softball version of Caitlin Clark. Tech hadn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2019 and was the worst team in the Big 12 as recently as two years ago. With Canady leading the way, Tech went supernova. She got hit around on Friday, allowing five runs in her only inning of work, which raised her season era to … 1.11. That’s the kind of pitcher she was this year.
There’s a roadmap here for athletic directors and donors with the eyes to see it. Softball looks like a sport on the rise, with trendlines going up in WCWS attendance and viewership. Major League Baseball sees enough upside to back a new professional league.
Other college athletic departments and their boosters might learn a thing or two from Texas Tech. A million NIL bucks wouldn’t even get you a good quarterback in the Big 12, but it got Tech the best player in the country and a College World Series run.
Plus, very soon, schools themselves will be able to openly invest in athletes in a new way. Last night (more below), a federal judge approved a settlement that allows schools to share up to $20.5 million next year with their athletes. Big-time athletic departments will spend most of it on football. But seeing how much a softball team can get for so little, why shouldn’t an enterprising AD try a different tack?Â
- The SEC, ACC and Big Ten have almost all of the country’s good softball teams, with three Big 12 programs also sneaking into the top 25 in RPI this year.
- All of those schools want to have great football teams to satisfy fans and make sure they don’t fall behind in realignment. So they’ll spend their money on football.
- But why shouldn’t some Mountain West or American Athletic school rally its donors toward softball and spend some extra revenue-sharing money on it? Maybe $3 million? Heck, why shouldn’t some Big Ten team with a middling football program give softball more of a shot instead?
There’s a market inefficiency here. Exploit it.
News to Know
Colleges can begin paying athletes
Judge Claudia Wilken granted final approval of the House v. NCAA settlement last night, paving the way for schools to pay athletes directly for the first time. The settlement establishes a 10-year revenue sharing model that allows each school to distribute up to roughly $20.5 million in revenue to athletes this season — in addition to any NIL money from boosters. Here’s a comprehensive explainer on the widespread ramifications of the settlement, but we’ll have much more this week.
Marchand the hero in Game 2
This Stanley Cup Final is setting up to be an all-timer. The Panthers led 4-3 in the third period last night until 40-year-old Corey Perry sent Game 2 to overtime with 17.8 seconds to play. Florida had chance after chance to bury the Oilers once more in overtime. No dice. Eight minutes into double overtime, with both teams running on fumes, deadline acquisition Brad Marchand scored his second of the night to finally bury Edmonton. We have a 1-1 series heading to Florida. Incredible drama.
Alcaraz, Sinner advance to French Open final
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are simply levels better than everyone else at the moment. Alcaraz dropped the first set in his semifinal yesterday, then hit another level and looked well on his way to an easy four-set win before Lorenzo Musetti retired with a leg injury. All Sinner had to do to meet Alcaraz in the final was take down 24-time Grand Slam champ Novak Djokovic. The GOAT played his best tennis of the year and still couldn’t take a set off Sinner. Alcaraz and Sinner will meet in a Grand Slam final for the first time tomorrow. Get used to this.
More news:
What to Watch
📺 Tennis: French Open women’s singles final
9 a.m. ET on TNT/truTV/Max
No. 2 seed Coco Gauff against No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. This’ll be good. Gauff would be the first American singles winner at Roland Garros since 2015. With Madison Keys taking the Australian Open, she’d make the U.S. two-for-two in grand slams this year. Sabalenka is the favorite, however.
đź“ş MLB: Cubs at Tigers
1:10 p.m. ET, MLB NetworkÂ
More on the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong in tomorrow’s Pulse, but for now, here’s a nice matinee between the two first-place clubs in the Central divisions.
đź“ş Horse racing: Belmont Stakes
7:04 p.m. ET on Fox
That’s the post time, with Fox’s main coverage starting three hours earlier. Your field guide is here, with Journalism favored over Sovereignty after they split the first two Triple Crown races.
Pulse Picks
Brian Hamilton relayed the scene from Oklahoma City, where the NBA Finals and Women’s College World Series created a sports vortex this week.
Our excellent golf writer Brody Miller wrote a book on the Tiger Slam. It’s a perfect summer sports read. You should buy it. — Chris Branch
Mike Birbiglia’s latest stand-up “The Good Life” has an irreverence for human folly that sharpens its reverence for human existence. (And if you haven’t watched “The Old Man & the Pool,” start with that!) — Hannah Vanbiber
The Athletic’s weekly sports news quiz.Â
“Friendship” — A fantastically absurd and fun movie, which is wholly unsurprising when you consider it stars Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. I saw it last week and certain scenes have been on loop in my head ever since. — Alex Iniguez
Cleaning out my freezer (just do it!), then embracing its ability to help reduce food waste and save a little money. — Torrey Hart
Two great Weird & Wild pieces from Jayson Stark this week: more mind-blowing Paul Skenes stats, and 10 ways the Rockies are making the wrong kind of history.
There’s a two-part documentary on Pee-wee Herman/Paul Reubens, called “Pee-wee as Himself” and it is absolutely brilliant. It’s on HBO/Max/whatever they’re calling it these days. Highly recommend. — Levi Weaver
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our newser on Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson’s injury.
Most-read on the website yesterday: The Djokovic-Sinner live blog.
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(Top photo: (Brett Rojo / Imagn Images))
