Big money, bad blood: Texas Tech turns softball into must-watch TV

That’s right, they’re wearing the black hat at Texas Tech. And they like it. 

Admit it, America. You somehow like it, too. 

The nobody becoming somebody. The forgotten becoming the unforgettable. 

No matter how much money it takes — and now, no matter the sport.

“If softball needs me to be the villain, I’m all about it,” says Texas Tech softball coach Gerry Glasco.

Hallelujah. 

Look, the dolts at the NCAA made this mess by inviting NIL and free player movement to the player procurement party. The billionaire alums at Texas Tech are simply taking advantage of it. 

You can’t tell a group of billionaire boosters whose livelihood is mining the largest and richest oil-producing basin in the United States they can buy a team, and not expect them to use some of that Texas tea rising out of the Permian Basin on private NIL to build a championship football team. 

Or in this case, multiple championship teams. 

The football team advanced to the College Football Playoff last season with one of the nation’s most expensive rosters. The high-priced basketball team reached the Elite Eight two years ago, and could’ve made a Final Four run this past season until star JT Toppin sustained an ACL injury in February. 

And the softball team — which last season paid star pitcher NiJaree Canady a whopping $1 million annually to leave Stanford — reached the championship series of the 2025 Women’s College World Series, and is back in the final again with Canady leading the way in Wednesday night's Game 1 against bitter rival Texas.

Only now the sideshow to football has reached the television main stage, and America is embracing it like never before. Ratings for softball have soared to record-breaking numbers, in part, because of the black-hat Red Raiders. 

Texas Tech’s Super Regional series at Florida included star infielder Mia Williams returning to Gainesville to play her former teammates — after leaving for an NIL deal with Texas Tech. She was hit by a pitch five times in the three-game series, the last nearly starting a brawl. 

It got so bad in Gainesville that Williams’ father, former Florida star basketball player Jason Williams, was mocking his university with the Gator Chomp as Texas Tech strolled off the field with its ticket to the WCWS.

The Red Raiders then needed to beat Tennessee to stay alive in the WCWS, and did so with another transfer — star infielder Taylor Pannell, from Tennessee — allegedly having words with Vols coach Karen Weekly. 

Pannell says Weekly said it was a mistake for her to leave Tennessee; Weekly says nothing was said between the two during the handshake line after the series. 

ESPN, meanwhile, used a Zapruder-worthy breakdown of the handshake line, where it appears — in that specific time frame — that Weekly said “good game” and nothing else. 

From a softball game, everyone. 

Forget about the NBA postseason reaching The Finals, and the new face of the sport, Victor Wembanyama. Or the NHL reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, and Canada’s Cup-less streak reaching 33 years. 

It’s all about 75 mph fastballs, and risers and sinkers and the long ball. Chicks aren’t the only ones who dig the long ball. 

Softball has sucked the oxygen from the live sports room, in no small part, because of Texas Tech and its there-will-be-blood NIL roster building. Have millions, will spend it — no matter the unintended consequences.

But this thing goes well beyond paying for a championship, and directly to the heart of David vs. Goliath. And in a bizarre twist, it’s David and his billions in oil money vs. the SEC and its billions within the college sports hierarchy. 

The SEC and Big Ten have decided its their game, and everyone will play by their rules. Or else. 

As corny and contrived as it sounds, that ain’t America, baby. So it’s root, root, root for the renegades. 

Those who abide by the rules set forth, and do so with a steely determination to win by flooding the market with mean, nasty cash. Then get it done by raiding SEC rosters. 

Somebody has to be the villain, so it may as well be all of us wearing that black hat.

Hallelujah to that. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.