Texas Tech flexes NIL muscle again, beats out Texas for premier pass rusher

For decades, there was a belief among college football fans that Texas Tech would never be able to lure high-end talent to Lubbock. Even those who donned the Scarlet and Black often resigned themselves to the idea that it would forever be an uphill battle for this program to try to acquire the type of players required to compete on a national level.

Now, thanks to a concerted NIL effort and the work of the program's top donors, those days are gone.

We were reminded of that fact once again on Friday night when Stanford edge rusher David Bailey, the top remaining player in the portal, announced that he was transferring to Texas Tech. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound outside linebacker picked the Red Raiders over offers from Texas and UCLA (his hometown university). It was yet another 2024-25 offseason addition that drove a stake into the heart of the tired narrative that recruiting to West Texas is impossible.

Tech now has the No. 1 transfer class in college football, according to 247Sports.com. Of the 18 transfers to have joined the Red Raiders this offseason, 12 are rated as 4-star transfers.

With a rating of 0.9500 out of 1.0000, Bailey now sits as the most highly-regarded player in the Red Raiders' offseason transfer haul. A former Freshman All-American, he totaled 111 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, and 14.5 sacks over his three seasons with the Cardinal. That included 31 tackles, 7.0 sacks, and 5.0 forced fumbles in 2024.

Now, he joins a loaded Red Raider defense for his final season of eligibility. That group includes five impact defensive line transfers, three of which are 4-star additions.

The question many are asking, though, is whether or not this type of talent acquisition will be sustainable. Thanks to a massive influx of money from top boosters, most notably West Texas oilman and former Texas Tech offensive lineman Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech football program has played the NIL game to perfection and assembled the most talented roster in the history of the school (at least on paper).

However, this Monday, the NIL game could change dramatically. If a U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken approves the proposed settlement in the House v. NCAA lawsuit, as expected, the days of unchecked NIL spending by collectives that support various universities could be over.

While the settlement would allow athletes to receive direct payments from their universities as part of a revenue-sharing model, it would also require them to report any third-party NIL deals worth over $600.

According to King Jemison of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "The settlement terms create greater oversight and 'fair-market value assessments' of NIL deals to ensure they’re legitimate, according to the Knight Commission report."

Therefore, the future of the NIL game that has helped Texas Tech move into the national conversation after nearly two decades of irrelevance is uncertain. That's one reason why the Texas Tech athletic department and its football donors decided to go all-in this offseason.

Fortunately, since NIL payments became permissible, Texas Tech has been at the forefront of the movement. Tech was one of the first schools in the nation to guarantee every scholarship player on the football roster a minimum NIL deal, and the Matador Club has continually come up with practices that other collectives have mimicked.

While spending sprees the likes of which we have seen in the past several months may not become the norm for Texas Tech (or any other program), Red Raider fans can be confident in knowing that the people leading the athletic department, and the NIL efforts that fund it, will figure out how to best play the game, regardless of how the rules may shift with each new courtroom or boardroom decision.

Therefore, there is no reason to think that the Red Raiders' ability to play the NIL game is going to come to an end anytime soon. When Bailey made the decision to join the program, it reinforced the notion that Tech is committed to improving the program by any permissible means and, even in the face of uncertainties in the world of college athletics, there is no reason to think that Tech won't be at the forefront of the talent acquisition game for the foreseeable future.