Just saw a headline that a Stanford softball player is transferring to a College in Texas after getting $1mm deal!

This got me thinking - the opportunity to make $$ right out of college makes it much more enticing to play football for high schoolers. So on the one hand we have a years long decline in the number of high schoolers playing football and on the other hand you have potential riches you could never dream of while in college let alone professionally.

Which way will the ball bounce? And will college football whittling down to the top 30-40 teams in the near future have a role?

That is an insane amount of money for a softball player. Looking at Texas Tech box scores last year, they might draw 1000-1100 per game. Not much revenue upside.


According to this, Texas Tech football players get 25k/yr each and softball 10k/yr.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/texas-tech-red-raiders/2023/07/19/texas-tech-athletes-reported-nearly-8-million-in-nil-money-through-first-two-years/

In regards to CTE and NIL, I'd think the biggest issue will be when players start getting paid next year - will they be considered employees and will that make Universities liable for CTE injuries? That seems like an uncapped liability, unless there are legal ways to indemnify universities on a national basis.

Econ141 said:

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Just saw a headline that a Stanford softball player is transferring to a College in Texas after getting $1mm deal!

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Yeah, obviously getting a Stanford degree doesn't mean much to her when she will (reportedly) get $1 million to play at Texass Tech.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/40633634/ex-stanford-softball-ace-nijaree-canady-commits-texas-tech

She is the sister of our freshman DL BJ Canady btw.

I sure hope they're liable for CTE! Jesus, the whole "you're unpaid, so we're not liable" is utter baloney. If anything, being unpaid should result in HIGHER liability for schools profiting off their unpaid players.

Bizarro world of stupidity if you ask me.

So... the guy who paid the NIL is an oil and gas guy.

Is she going to be starring in advertisements for his oil company or is this just pay to play? (Don't answer that.)

dimitrig said:

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So... the guy who paid the NIL is an oil and gas guy.

Is she going to be starring in advertisements for his oil company or is this just pay to play? (Don't answer that.)

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Allegedly, the settlement of the House lawsuit provides an enforcement mechanism to crack down on no-work NIL that is not reasonably based on the athlete's name-image-likeness value.

In reality, there likely won't be any significant enforcement, and people with more money than sense who want to pay $1 million/year to an NCAA softball or lacrosse or bowling athlete will just do it. Whether some colleges eventually drop "nonrevenue" sports just because they don't have their own people who want to give part of their family inheritance to an athlete few people have ever heard of is another matter.

I thought CAL fans were supposed to be smrt?