No. 2 UCLA headlines the field at this year's Judi Garman Classic, as the Bruins (17-1) look to bounce back from their 14-0 shellacking at the hands of Oklahoma last Sunday. The only other Top 25 teams in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll traveling to Fullerton, California for the Garman Classic are No. 15 LSU and No. 20 Oregon. The other squads in the 12-team field are Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton, Central Florida, Fresno St., Loyola Marymount, Michigan, Minnesota, San Jose St., and Seattle. Each team will play five games in the tournament.
NiJaree Canady, whose sub-1.00 ERA helped lead Stanford to the Women's College World Series in both her years with the Cardinal, announced on July 24 that she is transferring to Texas Tech. I've lived in Lubbock for 27 years and can say that the town has been improving with a greater selection of restaurants and shops, and a new downtown performing arts center. Likewise, nice new facilities have been dotting the Texas Tech campus . Still, it seems unlikely that Canady would have become a Red Raider without the $1 million annual Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal for her, made possible by the donation of a Texas Tech alumni couple. So stunning an event is this, even in the ever-changing world of collegiate athletics, that the New York Times even ran a behind-the-scenes story on Canady's path to Texas Tech. I look forward to being in the stands to watch Canady pitch next spring, an opportunity I never expected to have.