Stanford softball star pitcher NiJaree Canady has announced that she is transferring to Texas Tech, a program that is coming off a season in which they went 29-21 overall and 8-16 in the Big XII. Canady had an amazing season at Stanford this past season. She was named Softball America Pitcher of the Year, USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, First Team All-American, and Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team.
In 41 appearances, 29 starts, and 230.2 innings pitched, Canady had a record of 24-7 to go along with a 0.73 ERA. She totaled 337 strikeouts, 24 complete games, and five saves. She was simply sensational and really carried the Cardinal pitching staff and team on her back. Without her, they would not have reached the Women’s College World Series for a second straight season.
You might wonder why one would leave Stanford, a program that has reached the Women's College World Series back-to-back seasons all while being one of the top universities in the world for a Texas Tech program that has never reached the College World Series, hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2019, and can’t hold a candle to Stanford academically. The answer is very simple: $1.05M. That’s how much Texas Tech is offering to pay her per season, made possible by boosters John and Tracy Sellers.
It's a beyond staggering amount of money to pay a softball player given that softball is a non-revenue sport. There’s no question that college softball is gaining in popularity, but even so, that’s a mind blowing amount of money for a softball player. That kind of money is what you would expect a star football or men’s basketball player to make. Maybe women’s basketball or baseball. But softball? That’s just crazy.
First of all, I would like to address what this means for Stanford after which I’ll get into what this means for Canady and Texas Tech. There’s a lot to break down here and I thought it would be good to address all three angles of this. Ready? Let’s dive in.
For Stanford, this is obviously a major disappointment. Canady was the star of the team the past two seasons and a major reason why they were able to reach the Women’s College World Series back-to-back seasons. Stanford had not reached the Women’s College World Series since 2004 despite making the NCAA tournament in consecutive seasons from 2005-13 before getting back there again in 2019, 2021, and 2022. Canady took them from tournament level to Women’s College World Series level. Without her on the team, it’s going to be hard for Stanford to get back for a third straight season.
At the same time, when you look at how consistently Stanford has made the tournament in the last seven seasons since Jessica Allister took over the program, there’s no reason for the program to be all doom and gloom. Softball is a team sport and while Canady played a major role in Stanford’s success, it wouldn’t be fair to Canady’s now former teammates and coaches to say that they didn’t play a role in them reaching the Women’s College World Series these past two seasons. Reaching the Women’s College World Series is a team achievement. Without Aly Kaneshiro, Taryn Kern, Kaitlyn Lim, Kyra Chan, Jade Berry, and others (Alana Vawter in 2023) stepping up, the Cardinal wouldn’t have made it to the Women’s College World Series back-to-back seasons. That’s a fact.
If you are Stanford, all you can do is look ahead to the future with the pieces you do have and be excited about the incoming talent that you have coming in. With Canady leaving, that’s going to give others an opportunity to shine and prove their worth.
Via Stanford Athletics: Stanford Signs Five
One other thing I should mention is the NIL piece. A lot of people are going to look at Canady leaving Stanford and assume that Stanford didn’t make an effort to keep her or that they weren’t willing to make any quality NIL offer. That is not the case. Stanford’s NIL collective Lifetime Cardinal did make a real effort to keep her. They were comfortably offering her six figures per year to stay and on top of that were looking to get her connected with some heavy hitters in Silicon Valley.
That’s not a bad offer to put on the table at all. According to collegefactual.com, after 30 years, an undergraduate degree from Stanford University on average is worth $2,796,000 if you factor in the $47,000 per year it costs on average to attend the school. If you are on a full ride scholarship like Canady was on, that balloons to a net value of $2,984,000. If you tack on NIL money on top of that, then you comfortably go beyond $3M. Now of course, that’s just an average and not all undergraduate degrees are created equal. Still, that gives us a baseline understanding of how much value a Stanford degree holds.
This naturally bleeds into my next question which is whether or not Canady made the right decision in leaving Stanford for Texas Tech:
If making money in the short term was her top goal, she made the right decision. It’s not even close. Especially when you consider the fact that there really isn’t much money to be made playing softball once your college career is over.
While Stanford was comfortably offering her six figures to stay, my reporting indicates it was likely in the range of $200-$350K per year. Somewhere in that $150K range. That’s simply nowhere near $1.05M per year. And even if Stanford was willing to go a bit higher than what my intel indicates, they still weren’t going to even touch an NIL offer in the neighborhood of what Texas Tech is throwing at her.
Of course, throwing a lot of money at her in the short term is all that Texas Tech can offer Canady. QS World University Rankings for 2025 have Texas Tech ranked #781-790. Stanford in contrast is ranked 5th in the QS World University Rankings, considered one of the top universities in the world. A degree from Texas Tech simply doesn’t hold a candle to a degree from Stanford. It is what it is. Stanford tells their student athletes all the time that coming to Stanford is a 40 year decision and not a four year decision. When you look at the value of a Stanford degree on average over 30 years, it becomes clear why Stanford hammers that point home.
Talking pure dollars and cents, if Canady had decided to stay at Stanford and maximize what a degree from Stanford can offer, in the long term, she could end up making more than $3M. It just wouldn’t come in as immediate of a chunk as what Texas Tech is offering for the next two seasons. The key here though is that $3M or more from the Stanford degree is based on potential and the $2M from Texas Tech for two seasons is much more concrete. That’s what makes it tough.
Baked into the Texas Tech deal is a reported deal with Adidas, which will also pay her a lot of money. So that should make her feel even more comfortable. Though of course, Stanford is a Nike school and Nike can offer top dollar for athletes as well, so had she stayed at Stanford, I’m sure she could have negotiated a solid endorsement deal from Nike.
To make one more point on the money side of things, Canady better make sure she is getting as much of that $1M per year from Texas Tech as possible. If she has an agent, she’s likely going to have to pay her agent 10% of that money. Then there’s also the fact that she’ll have to pay federal taxes on that money. And then there’s also the question of whether or not that $1M per year is fully guaranteed or if that is conditional on things like winning a national championship, reaching the Women’s College World Series, reaching the NCAA tournament, etc. I don’t know the answer to those questions, but hopefully for her, she’s gonna collect as much of that $1M as possible.
The other aspect of this move for Canady is winning. How much will she win with Texas Tech? They haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2019 and only been to the tournament six times in their history. They’ve never been to the Women’s College World Series. While I do think Canady will make them a lot better, it’s far from a guarantee that her presence will turn them into a Women’s College World Series team. It’s not even a guarantee that they’ll make a Super Regional (Sweet Sixteen).
If the next two seasons at Texas Tech don’t result in a run to the Women’s College World Series for Canady, it’s going to be hard to argue a case that leaving Stanford was better for her overall brand. Heck, given that she’s getting paid $1M, you could very easily argue that it’s national championship or bust for her. That’s a lot of pressure on Canady. Especially given that Texas Tech is a program that hasn’t even sniffed that level of success.
Regarding what this means for Texas Tech, they have to make sure they are able to put a team around Canady. If they aren’t able to put a quality team around Canady, the hype from this signing will fizzle fast. They have to at least reach the College World Series with her and even then as I said, that might not be enough to justify the $1M per year they are paying Canady. It’s arguably national championship or bust. Landing Canady is very exciting for them, but at the end of the day, what matters most is winning. I have no doubt that Canady will make them a much better team than what they have been, but they’ve set the bar so high that it’s far from a guarantee that they’ll be able to clear it.
In conclusion, it’s going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out for Canady, Texas Tech, and Stanford. While Stanford softball in the short-term takes a major hit from losing Canady, the Stanford brand is still incredibly strong, the program has been competitive before Canady’s arrival, and almost certainly will be in the post-Canady world. Lifetime Cardinal is willing to offer a quality NIL package and help their athletes squeeze out every possible advantage they can from their Stanford experience, which as I posted above, can net millions of dollars in the long term. On top of that, Stanford's softball stadium is getting a major renovation, which will help them continue to recruit top talent in the years to come.
In many ways, it’s Canady that’s taking the bigger risk here. Yes she’s netting much more money in the short term, but when you look at all that Stanford was offering her in the long term combined with the fact that they’ve proven to be a Women's College World Series level program with her on it, it’s far from a guarantee that this is a decision that is better for her overall brand and long term net worth.
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