How Nijaree Canady Broke Ground In College Softball
By Jamison Ness
The transfer portal has been impacting all collegiate sports in the NCAA for the last five years, with softball being no exception to this. Especially over the past three years, softball fans have seen players, pitchers especially, enter the portal each summer looking for a new home. The difference between softball and say football players entering the portal has been that softball players were not transferring for NIL deals. The money oven to collegiate softball players simply was not enough for this to be a factor in the transfer portal. This all changed with Nijaree Canady’s recent transfer from Stanford to Texas Tech.
Who is Nijaree?
Nijaree Canady is a right handed pitcher from Topeka, Kansas. Clocking in at throwing 75mph multiple times in this Junes Women College World Series, Canady uses her speed and epic changeup to keep batters on their toes. Canady made an immediate impact during her freshman season. Playing for Stanford, She held a 17-3 record with a showstopping 0.57 Earned Run Average. In 135 innings pitched that season, Canady also had 218 strikeouts. Perhaps above all of this, Canady led Stanford Softball to their first Women's College World Series since 2004. Not only this, but she showed out when she arrived. In the 2023 WCWS, the true freshman pitched 18.2 innings with a 0.16 ERA. In those innings, she also racked up twenty five strikeouts. This domination by Canady carried on to 2024. Leading Stanford to yet another WCWS, Canady pitched just short of two hundred and thirty three innings with a 0.73 Earned Run Average . In the WCWS, Canady pitched twenty six innings with a 0.19 Earned Run Average. All of these statistics prove Canady is a force to be reckoned with in collegiate softball.
Entering the Portal
On June 17th of this year, Canady announced that she was entering the transfer portal, leaving many Stanford and softball fans alike shocked. All eyes immediately went to the dynasty of Patty Gasso and Oklahoma softball. After their fourth championship in a row just a few weeks before Canady entered the portal, this seemed like the most likely decision. Canady left fans speculating where she would go for over a month. On July 24th, 2024, Canady announced on social media that she is “Excited for what's ahead” with Texas Tech. Texas Tech has never been a true WCWS in softball, so fans immediately wondered what was going on. That is when the NIL deal came to light.
The NIL Deal
The contract of this NIL deal is for one year, and an eye opening amount of $1,050,024. Texas Tech explained that the 24 is for Canady’s jersey number, the $50,000 is for living expenses, and 1 million dollars are simply for Canady. In the same article, Texas Tech expressed that if anyone deserves this groundbreaking deal in college softball, it is Canady. She truly can change programs and take a team straight to the WCWS.
What Doors Does This Open
Although amazing for herself, Canady has done a huge favor to all of college softball with this deal. A door that was previously closed, is now wide open. Texas Tech and Canady set an example for what college softball players could be getting. With this iconic deal as an example, the next year in the transfer portal will be very interesting. Softball fans will all watch to see what blockbuster NIL deal is next. These softball athletes work just as hard as all others, so seeing them finally get the financial compensation than other sports are amazing. That being said, this could go bigger than softball. Other women's sports that currently don’t have these types of NIL deals like rowing, field hockey, and lacrosse ,may start to look at what softball is doing and follow suit. Overall, this deal is so much bigger than Nijaree Cnaady and Texas Tech and it is exciting to see what the future holds for collegiate women's sports, and softball specifically.
https://gostanford.com/sports/softball/roster/season/2024/player/nijaree-canady