06-04-2025, 07:27 AM
From today's SF Chron:
NiJaree Canady not only put an unheralded, 12th-seeded Texas Tech softball team on her back and carried it into the Women’s College World Series final. Along the way, she also delivered another blow to the image of Stanford sports.
The star pitcher wore the Stanford jersey until last June. After the Cardinal were eliminated in the 2024 WCWS semifinals, Canady entered the collegiate transfer portal and, within a month, landed the biggest name, image and likeness deal ever given to a softball player. She is reportedly making $1,050,024 on a one-year NIL deal with Texas Tech: one million for her, $50,000 for living expenses, plus another $24 to symbolize her jersey number.
Maybe Stanford couldn’t have competed with that kind of money. Maybe it didn’t want to. But Canady is another high-profile athlete who has come to symbolize how far behind Stanford has fallen in the current collegiate climate.
There have also been departures from the football team, like defensive end David Bailey (also to Texas Tech), cornerback Julian Neal (to Arkansas) and receiver Emmett Mosley (to Texas). Men’s basketball lost Oziyah Sellers, expected to be the Cardinal’s top returning player next season, to St. John’s.
Almost four years after the start of the NIL era, which began on July 1, 2021, Stanford is still scrambling to play catch-up. For years it was dismissive, even hostile, to the concept of paying athletes. Now, with a different attitude, Stanford continues to try to make up for lost time and previous arrogance.
The new administration has signaled that it is determined to change things. University President Jonathan Levin has been in place for almost a year and is far more engaged with athletics than his predecessor, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. In November, former Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck was named the football program’s general manager, reporting directly to Levin. Since that time the football team has, according to the 247 Sports portal tracker, lost 17 players and gained 13. It has also dealt with the turmoil of firing head coach Troy Taylor over toxic workplace behavior and hiring Luck’s former NFL coach Frank Reich as a single-season bridge to the future.
In February, Stanford announced that athletic director Bernard Muir would step down after 13 years. Though Muir was originally expected to finish out the school year, an interim AD, Alden Mitchell, was named in March. At that time, the school announced the formation of a search committee to find the next athletic director. More than two months later, no announcement has been made. A spokesperson for the athletic department said there was a possibility there could be news at the end of this month.
But for the moment, there continues to be a void in athletic leadership at Stanford at this critical juncture, just as another major tremor shakes the college scene. Terms of a historic NCAA legal settlement are supposed to go into effect this summer, allowing schools to share revenues with athletes for the first time, while also creating more parameters around NIL deals and roster size.
The college athletics landscape continues to change rapidly, but Stanford hasn’t kept up.
Canady is a symbol of that. She went 24-17 in two years with Stanford, taking Cardinal softball to the semifinals last year. But two Texas Tech boosters — alumni with wealth from the oil and gas industry — wanted to change things up in West Texas and offered Canady a brobdingnagian NIL deal. The recruiting even included a phone call from the Red Raiders’ most famous male athlete, Patrick Mahomes. Canady, who grew up in Kansas, is a brobdingnagian Chiefs fan.
The investment has reaped benefits. Canady went 26-5 in the regular season with a 0.86 ERA. The junior also batted .305, with 11 homers. She has said that the opportunity to hit for the Red Raiders was something that helped sell her on the school; at Stanford she did not frequently bat.
In Monday’s semifinal against Oklahoma, which has won four consecutive softball championships, Canady was dominating until she hung a pitch that an Oklahoma player hit for a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was just the third home run Canady has given up this season. She quickly got the third out and then her team came through with the winning run in the bottom of the inning, sending the Red Raiders to the finals. They will play Texas in a three-game series beginning Wednesday. On social media, Mahomes — now a Canady fan — was living and dying with every inning.
You can be sure Stanford was paying attention, too. To yet another symbol of its struggles to keep up with a world of change.
A few months ago we saw former Cardinal Lauren Betts take UCLA to the Final Four. We watched another former Stanford player, Kiki Iriafen, pour in 36 points for USC’s basketball team in the NCAA second round after teammate Juju Watkins tore her ACL. If Watkins had been healthy, the Trojans might also have advanced to the Final Four.
There have also been departures from the football team, like defensive end David Bailey (also to Texas Tech), cornerback Julian Neal (to Arkansas) and receiver Emmett Mosley (to Texas). Men’s basketball lost Oziyah Sellers, expected to be the Cardinal’s top returning player next season, to St. John’s.
Almost four years after the start of the NIL era, which began on July 1, 2021, Stanford is still scrambling to play catch-up. For years it was dismissive, even hostile, to the concept of paying athletes. Now, with a different attitude, Stanford continues to try to make up for lost time and previous arrogance.
The new administration has signaled that it is determined to change things. University President Jonathan Levin has been in place for almost a year and is far more engaged with athletics than his predecessor, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. In November, former Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck was named the football program’s general manager, reporting directly to Levin. Since that time the football team has, according to the 247 Sports portal tracker, lost 17 players and gained 13. It has also dealt with the turmoil of firing head coach Troy Taylor over toxic workplace behavior and hiring Luck’s former NFL coach Frank Reich as a single-season bridge to the future.
In February, Stanford announced that athletic director Bernard Muir would step down after 13 years. Though Muir was originally expected to finish out the school year, an interim AD, Alden Mitchell, was named in March. At that time, the school announced the formation of a search committee to find the next athletic director. More than two months later, no announcement has been made. A spokesperson for the athletic department said there was a possibility there could be news at the end of this month.
But for the moment, there continues to be a void in athletic leadership at Stanford at this critical juncture, just as another major tremor shakes the college scene. Terms of a historic NCAA legal settlement are supposed to go into effect this summer, allowing schools to share revenues with athletes for the first time, while also creating more parameters around NIL deals and roster size.
The college athletics landscape continues to change rapidly, but Stanford hasn’t kept up.
Canady is a symbol of that. She went 24-17 in two years with Stanford, taking Cardinal softball to the semifinals last year. But two Texas Tech boosters — alumni with wealth from the oil and gas industry — wanted to change things up in West Texas and offered Canady a brobdingnagian NIL deal. The recruiting even included a phone call from the Red Raiders’ most famous male athlete, Patrick Mahomes. Canady, who grew up in Kansas, is a brobdingnagian Chiefs fan.
The investment has reaped benefits. Canady went 26-5 in the regular season with a 0.86 ERA. The junior also batted .305, with 11 homers. She has said that the opportunity to hit for the Red Raiders was something that helped sell her on the school; at Stanford she did not frequently bat.
In Monday’s semifinal against Oklahoma, which has won four consecutive softball championships, Canady was dominating until she hung a pitch that an Oklahoma player hit for a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was just the third home run Canady has given up this season. She quickly got the third out and then her team came through with the winning run in the bottom of the inning, sending the Red Raiders to the finals. They will play Texas in a three-game series beginning Wednesday. On social media, Mahomes — now a Canady fan — was living and dying with every inning.
You can be sure Stanford was paying attention, too. To yet another symbol of its struggles to keep up with a world of change.
NiJaree Canady not only put an unheralded, 12th-seeded Texas Tech softball team on her back and carried it into the Women’s College World Series final. Along the way, she also delivered another blow to the image of Stanford sports.
The star pitcher wore the Stanford jersey until last June. After the Cardinal were eliminated in the 2024 WCWS semifinals, Canady entered the collegiate transfer portal and, within a month, landed the biggest name, image and likeness deal ever given to a softball player. She is reportedly making $1,050,024 on a one-year NIL deal with Texas Tech: one million for her, $50,000 for living expenses, plus another $24 to symbolize her jersey number.
Maybe Stanford couldn’t have competed with that kind of money. Maybe it didn’t want to. But Canady is another high-profile athlete who has come to symbolize how far behind Stanford has fallen in the current collegiate climate.
There have also been departures from the football team, like defensive end David Bailey (also to Texas Tech), cornerback Julian Neal (to Arkansas) and receiver Emmett Mosley (to Texas). Men’s basketball lost Oziyah Sellers, expected to be the Cardinal’s top returning player next season, to St. John’s.
Almost four years after the start of the NIL era, which began on July 1, 2021, Stanford is still scrambling to play catch-up. For years it was dismissive, even hostile, to the concept of paying athletes. Now, with a different attitude, Stanford continues to try to make up for lost time and previous arrogance.
The new administration has signaled that it is determined to change things. University President Jonathan Levin has been in place for almost a year and is far more engaged with athletics than his predecessor, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. In November, former Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck was named the football program’s general manager, reporting directly to Levin. Since that time the football team has, according to the 247 Sports portal tracker, lost 17 players and gained 13. It has also dealt with the turmoil of firing head coach Troy Taylor over toxic workplace behavior and hiring Luck’s former NFL coach Frank Reich as a single-season bridge to the future.
In February, Stanford announced that athletic director Bernard Muir would step down after 13 years. Though Muir was originally expected to finish out the school year, an interim AD, Alden Mitchell, was named in March. At that time, the school announced the formation of a search committee to find the next athletic director. More than two months later, no announcement has been made. A spokesperson for the athletic department said there was a possibility there could be news at the end of this month.
But for the moment, there continues to be a void in athletic leadership at Stanford at this critical juncture, just as another major tremor shakes the college scene. Terms of a historic NCAA legal settlement are supposed to go into effect this summer, allowing schools to share revenues with athletes for the first time, while also creating more parameters around NIL deals and roster size.
The college athletics landscape continues to change rapidly, but Stanford hasn’t kept up.
Canady is a symbol of that. She went 24-17 in two years with Stanford, taking Cardinal softball to the semifinals last year. But two Texas Tech boosters — alumni with wealth from the oil and gas industry — wanted to change things up in West Texas and offered Canady a brobdingnagian NIL deal. The recruiting even included a phone call from the Red Raiders’ most famous male athlete, Patrick Mahomes. Canady, who grew up in Kansas, is a brobdingnagian Chiefs fan.
The investment has reaped benefits. Canady went 26-5 in the regular season with a 0.86 ERA. The junior also batted .305, with 11 homers. She has said that the opportunity to hit for the Red Raiders was something that helped sell her on the school; at Stanford she did not frequently bat.
In Monday’s semifinal against Oklahoma, which has won four consecutive softball championships, Canady was dominating until she hung a pitch that an Oklahoma player hit for a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was just the third home run Canady has given up this season. She quickly got the third out and then her team came through with the winning run in the bottom of the inning, sending the Red Raiders to the finals. They will play Texas in a three-game series beginning Wednesday. On social media, Mahomes — now a Canady fan — was living and dying with every inning.
You can be sure Stanford was paying attention, too. To yet another symbol of its struggles to keep up with a world of change.
A few months ago we saw former Cardinal Lauren Betts take UCLA to the Final Four. We watched another former Stanford player, Kiki Iriafen, pour in 36 points for USC’s basketball team in the NCAA second round after teammate Juju Watkins tore her ACL. If Watkins had been healthy, the Trojans might also have advanced to the Final Four.
There have also been departures from the football team, like defensive end David Bailey (also to Texas Tech), cornerback Julian Neal (to Arkansas) and receiver Emmett Mosley (to Texas). Men’s basketball lost Oziyah Sellers, expected to be the Cardinal’s top returning player next season, to St. John’s.
Almost four years after the start of the NIL era, which began on July 1, 2021, Stanford is still scrambling to play catch-up. For years it was dismissive, even hostile, to the concept of paying athletes. Now, with a different attitude, Stanford continues to try to make up for lost time and previous arrogance.
The new administration has signaled that it is determined to change things. University President Jonathan Levin has been in place for almost a year and is far more engaged with athletics than his predecessor, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. In November, former Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck was named the football program’s general manager, reporting directly to Levin. Since that time the football team has, according to the 247 Sports portal tracker, lost 17 players and gained 13. It has also dealt with the turmoil of firing head coach Troy Taylor over toxic workplace behavior and hiring Luck’s former NFL coach Frank Reich as a single-season bridge to the future.
In February, Stanford announced that athletic director Bernard Muir would step down after 13 years. Though Muir was originally expected to finish out the school year, an interim AD, Alden Mitchell, was named in March. At that time, the school announced the formation of a search committee to find the next athletic director. More than two months later, no announcement has been made. A spokesperson for the athletic department said there was a possibility there could be news at the end of this month.
But for the moment, there continues to be a void in athletic leadership at Stanford at this critical juncture, just as another major tremor shakes the college scene. Terms of a historic NCAA legal settlement are supposed to go into effect this summer, allowing schools to share revenues with athletes for the first time, while also creating more parameters around NIL deals and roster size.
The college athletics landscape continues to change rapidly, but Stanford hasn’t kept up.
Canady is a symbol of that. She went 24-17 in two years with Stanford, taking Cardinal softball to the semifinals last year. But two Texas Tech boosters — alumni with wealth from the oil and gas industry — wanted to change things up in West Texas and offered Canady a brobdingnagian NIL deal. The recruiting even included a phone call from the Red Raiders’ most famous male athlete, Patrick Mahomes. Canady, who grew up in Kansas, is a brobdingnagian Chiefs fan.
The investment has reaped benefits. Canady went 26-5 in the regular season with a 0.86 ERA. The junior also batted .305, with 11 homers. She has said that the opportunity to hit for the Red Raiders was something that helped sell her on the school; at Stanford she did not frequently bat.
In Monday’s semifinal against Oklahoma, which has won four consecutive softball championships, Canady was dominating until she hung a pitch that an Oklahoma player hit for a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was just the third home run Canady has given up this season. She quickly got the third out and then her team came through with the winning run in the bottom of the inning, sending the Red Raiders to the finals. They will play Texas in a three-game series beginning Wednesday. On social media, Mahomes — now a Canady fan — was living and dying with every inning.
You can be sure Stanford was paying attention, too. To yet another symbol of its struggles to keep up with a world of change.
Life is too short to waste on crap football.
