Krista Gerlich on what future changes in college sports could mean for Texas Tech
Krista Gerlich on what future changes in college sports could mean for Texas Tech as the Lady Raiders wrap up their summer workouts.
A little over a year ago, as the Texas Tech football team was preparing for the first practices of the 2023 season, head coach Joey McGuire was asked about the future and what the Red Raiders could do as a program to take the lead as a new team in the Big 12 Conference.
“Everyone in this conference,” McGuire said last August, “has an opportunity to step forward and take a leadership role in this conference.”
McGuire added that he didn’t want the Red Raiders to wait until 2024 to climb to the Big 12 podium. With Texas and Oklahoma looming to join the Southeastern Conference, it was a barely kept secret that the conference was losing its two most recognizable brands.
While the Sooners and Longhorns hardly dominated every single sport as many liked to claim, it’s hard to argue that the two schools were by far the most recognizable names in the entire conference. Their departures, made official this summer, have opened the door for someone else. The School of the redesigned Big 12 with 16 teams.
For the past year or so, Texas Tech coaches have shared McGuire’s views on the future of the conference. There’s a chance it could become the new Texas or Oklahoma, the only school associated with consistent success and take over from commissioner Brett Yormark.
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There are a variety of options, but they generally vary by sport. Few, if any, schools in the new Big 12 have the kind of sustainability in their athletic departments needed to become that go-to place.
Since McGuire made those comments, Texas Tech has taken a number of steps to position itself as a contender to be the new flagship of the Big 12 through recruiting, name, image and likeness deals, and success on the field.
The best example of this is also the most recent. The softball team’s signing of Gerry Glasco put the team on the national radar for the first time. NiJaree Canady’s commitment to the Red Raiders and her reportedly seven-figure NIL deal with the Matador Club took Tech from a sideline to a national contender almost overnight. Investing in women’s sports, especially one that hasn’t made the postseason since 2019, isn’t something Glasco takes for granted.
“I think the whole NIL perspective has changed college sports in general, not just softball,” Glasco said during a Zoom session in July. “But I think it’s an opportunity for female athletes to be perceived differently and get a different perspective on what’s available and possible for a young female athlete.”
Football and basketball, the two biggest sports at Tech, have made waves in terms of player recruitment.
When five-star recruit Micah Hudson chose Texas Tech despite a number of other options, it marked a turning point for McGuire and his team’s ability to recruit the best of the best. Grant McCasland was able to sign some solid players from the transfer portal, then brought in a late four-star recruit in Christian Anderson – who recently led Germany to the FIBA U18 European Championship – and acquired highly touted transfer JT Toppin after the former New Mexico Lobo tried out at the NBA Draft Combine.
McCasland, now entering his second year as coach of the men’s basketball team, said recently that he has a good sense of how the athletic department is evolving in this new environment and likes what he has seen from every angle.
“Regardless of the Big 12, I don’t care who’s in it. I just feel like there’s a growing expectation, a growing belief and a growing hunger, and you can’t explain that unless you’re part of that community,” McCasland said. “We have so many resources, but we have so many people who love being part of it that I think we’re just scratching the surface of what we can really do as an athletic department.”
The landscape of college sports is never finished, of course. A new version of the NCAA will take effect next year when the results of the House of Representatives vs. NCAA Agreement takes effect. Reported changes include increased scholarships for all sports, roster caps and the ability for schools to pay players directly through revenue sharing.
Much of this is still uncertain and nothing will be finalized until later. That leaves some coaches like Krista Gerlich wondering what’s on the horizon. Like McCasland, Gerlich believes Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt will be prepared for whatever comes her way.
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“I think Texas Tech is always going to be one step ahead,” Gerlich said last week. “So with the revenue share, they’re going to make sure we’re one step ahead and we’re out there with a fully loaded gun. When it comes to that, I think Kirby is really, really good at it.”
Trust in administration. Resources to hire the best coaches and players possible. An open roadmap to the new Big 12. Texas Tech has all of these things, but there is just one simple aspect that can improve all of them and make the climb to the top that much easier.
Simply win.
“We can talk all we want, but we have to win,” women’s soccer coach Tom Stone said. “It’s not a game of talk. It’s a game of results. The first guy to remind us of that is Kirby Hocutt. He always says, ‘We have to win, boys,’ but what we love about Kirby is he always adds, ‘We have to win the right way, too.’
… I think we see in all sports that coaches are very smart with those resources, but also really care about the character of the players they sign.”
