AROUND NIL | Can $55 million buy wins? Texas Tech's NIL experiment enters crunch time
- Golf NIL
- Jul 21
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 2
July 24, 2025—Texas Tech has committed $55 million to its athletes in 2025 through revenue sharing and NIL deals, making it the highest-paying program in college athletics. That figure dwarfs national champion Ohio State ($25 million) and rival Texas ($45 million). Billionaire booster Cody Campbell, who built his fortune in Texas oil, leads the Matador Club collective backing major acquisitions: softball pitcher NiJaree Canady received over $1 million to transfer from Stanford and helped Tech reach the national championship game; men’s basketball’s JT Toppin got $4 million to stay; and five-star lineman Felix Ojo picked Tech over Texas with a $5.1 million, three-year deal.
The $55 million supports the entire athletic department, including non-revenue sports, with Canady’s success illustrating how NIL funding can elevate Olympic programs. The investment has yielded back-to-back top-25 recruiting classes for the first time and a jump to second in transfer portal rankings. However, critics question the impact on team chemistry and the long-term sustainability of such massive spending.
Texas Tech's JT Toppin in an NCAA basketball game at Barclays Center | James Patrick Cooper/ZUMA Press Wire
July 25, 2025—On Wednesday, Senator Chris Murphy and Rep. Lori Trahan introduced federal legislation establishing college athletes' rights to profit from NIL deals. The "College Athlete Economic Freedom Act" would bar NCAA restrictions on NIL opportunities, enable international athletes to pursue deals without visa hurdles, mandate anti-discrimination protections across gender and sports, and empower athletes to negotiate revenue shares from TV and media rights. The bill creates uniform national standards to replace the patchwork of state laws and goes further than typical endorsement deals by including direct revenue sharing from the multibillion-dollar college sports industry. Murphy frames the legislation as a safeguard against potential GOP rollbacks under President Trump, though the bill faces expected opposition from Republican lawmakers in Congress.
July 26, 2025—President Donald Trump signed the "Saving College Sports" executive order to tackle the chaotic NIL landscape, marked by soaring athlete compensation and a patchwork of more than 30 state laws. Trump's order aims squarely at protecting non-revenue sports like women's programs, Olympic sports, and golf. It directs schools generating over $125 million in athletic revenue to expand scholarships for non-revenue sports beyond 2024-25 levels, calls for schools with over $50 million to maintain current scholarship counts, and sets expectations that smaller schools avoid slashing scholarships based on revenue potential.
The order cracks down on booster-funded third-party pay-for-play NIL deals disguised as athlete payments, while safeguarding legitimate brand endorsements. It also charges the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board with deciding if college athletes qualify as employees—an issue that could reshape college sports’ economics.
NCAA officials and Republican lawmakers backing the SCORE Act cautiously welcome the move. Legal experts and athlete advocates slam its enforceability and impact, with sports journalist Ross Dellenger noting the order grabs headlines but skirts deeper, systemic problems. The key battle now is over enforcement and what Congress’s next steps will be.
