There is no major tournament this weekend attracting a large number of the nation's top-ranked teams. Instead, there are a lot of smaller tournaments. One match-up that has great personal interest for me is UCLA vs. Michigan in the Disney/Wide World of Sports tournament in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The Bruins and Wolverines are just getting underway now, late Friday afternoon. UCLA is where I received my bachelor's degree and Michigan, where I obtained my Ph.D. Both teams currently are ranked in the mid-teens nationally, a far cry from 2005 when UCLA and Michigan played a classic three-game final round in the Women's College World Series (won by the Wolverines, thanks to Samantha Findlay's three-run blast in the top of the 10th inning of Game 3).
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.