There's no question that it has been a strong 2024-25 athletic year for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders captured eight total Big 12 championships, the most of any team in the conference.
In addition, the Red Raider men's basketball team reached the Elite Eight and came within a blink of playing in the Final Four before a late collapse cost them a win against eventual National Champion Florida.
Off the field, the Texas Tech success has been evident as well. That's especially true in the case of the football program, which has brought in a historic transfer class, one that is rated by some recruiting services as the No. 1 transfer haul in the country.
Of course, all of that winning was topped off this past weekend when the softball program qualified for the Women's College World Series for the first time in its history. That remarkable accomplishment was powered by Texas Tech's unprecedented NIL investment in softball, a non-revenue sport. The money poured into that program brought star pitcher NiJaree Canady to Lubbock for a reported $1 million per season and changed the trajectory of Tech softball almost overnight.
Now, as the Red Raiders prepare to play in this week's world series in Oklahoma City, the attention the softball program and the entire athletic department is receiving has ramped up, and the conversation for most around the nation is about the success that Tech has had via the NIL market. But, as one might expect, not everyone is happy to see the rise of the Red Raiders.
Fans across the nation are jealous of Texas Tech's success
Almost as soon as Tech recorded the final out of last weekend's Super Regional victory over No. 5 national seed Florida State, criticism from jealous fans across the nation began to flow freely on social media. It wasn't just Seminole fans that were angry, though.
Rather, fans of schools from all corners of the nation tried to claim that Tech's World Series run is less legitimate than the accomplishments of the other World Series participants simply because of the NIL investment that Tech made in the program. Claiming that Tech was guilty of just buying a World Series appearance, those fans showed that there is going to be pushback against Texas Tech's efforts to improve their standing in the highest-profile sports by using the current system that the NCAA has in place.
What's fascinating is that many of those speaking out against Texas Tech are supporters or alums of universities that have used money to gain unfair advantages for decades. Long before NIL allowed athletic departments to openly compensate athletes above the board, untold numbers of schools were using back-channel methods to funnel under-the-table money and benefits to recruits and athletes.
That system was fine for those who managed to use it effectively. Now, though, Texas Tech is the face of the new era in college athletics, an era in which compensating athletes is done in the light, and for some reason, that is not sitting well with many fans.
The reason for this angst against Texas Tech is that it is a non-traditional power that has started to rise up via the NIL market. Were it Texas, Ohio State, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan, Southern California, or some other long-time name-brand athletic department that was leading the NIL movement, few people would bat an eye. In fact, many of those schools are also paying big money to win in various sports, but none are getting the criticism that Texas Tech is.
Because little ole Texas Tech is threatening the status quo across multiple sports, those who have enjoyed sitting on the throne for years are now fearful as a new challenger rises on the scene. Remember, college sports have always been tribal in nature, not communal, the way professional sports are set up.
In the world of college athletics, it has always essentially been every school for itself. Thus, the rise of a new contender is not welcomed as it would be in the professional ranks. Rather, it is feared by those who have perched atop the hierarchy for decades, as there is a new threat to their dominance.
The ironic part of all of this is that many Tech fans initially feared that our school wouldn't be able to keep up in the NIL era after struggling to play on the big stage for most of the athletic department's existence.
Fortunately, though, a group of well-funded and highly motivated boosters has seized this opportunity to bring the Red Raiders to the forefront in multiple sports. Now, the nation is taking notice, and many outside of West Texas aren't happy about it.
That shouldn't bother Texas Tech fans, though. After all, irritating those who think they are better than the rest of us has been what this university has been about since the day it was founded. Why stop now?