Good morning, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July.

Some personal news to start the day. I have a new job. Kind of crazy to announce as I try to keep my “real job” life separate from what I do here, but I was offered a position at a trust department and decided to take it. So that means that I’m essentially wrapping up 17 years of private practice with the thought that I’m leaving private practice for a good while. People ask if I’m still going to be an attorney, and yes, I am, I just won’t be practicing on a regular basis, essentially corporate counsel.

I’m excited about this new opportunity, in part because I’ll have a job that has benefits, real vacations, not the kind that I take now where I still work throughout the vacation because if I ain’t billin’, I ain’t making money, and not having to worry about running an office on a daily basis. It comes with a downside as well, particularly that I’m not my own boss, but I think I’ll take the trade-off. I made this decision about a month ago, notified my law-partner, and as I told him, I’m going to try to make as much money as possibly and just give it to him as I go to my new job. I don’t start until August 2nd so if you notice that my scheduling slows down between now and then, that’s probably the reason why.

I haven’t really had time to type my thoughts out on the new name, image, and likeness legislation that went through on July 1st. For me, I don’t know that it will change a lot, but who knows. I honestly think that this might be bigger in a world that I don’t live in, which is the world of young pretty girls who are influencers. I could see this NIL being great for them as I think a ton of humans like that make a good chunk of change off of Instagram posts that cater to the female crowd. I also tend to think there will be a segment of players who make a good amount of money from the NIL, but for the most part, that won’t happen until football players are juniors when they are more widely recognized and probably sophomore seasons for basketball players.

Regardless, I think this was long overdue. We live in a world where people can make a living off of their being except in college athletics. That’s strange to me and always had been. I get that athletics pays for scholarships, which is great, a product is also produced in which the players don’t see any part of that (although that day is probably coming as well).

I’ve seen that Kevin McCullar has his own website, which I think is great. I’ve seen where players are announcing they are on Cameo. I know that Texas Tech uses OpenDorse and I’ve seen where student-athletes have their OpenDorse profile there so that they can book deals straight from the place where this is all going to filter through (here is an example of a Nebraska volleyball player, Annika Evans). Quarterback Tyler Shough spoke with SI’s Bri Amaranthus about what the new NIL rules mean to him.

“Every day will be a balance,” he said. “My mindset is use my NIL as a tool that I can take advantage of, outside of football. I’m not going to let NIL interfere with football at all. A lot of work still needs to be done. The potential money to be made is going to come from my work by playing football… Football is what it is about.”

And Texas Tech is expanding their creative services department so that the NIL and stories of these student-athletes can be sold.

Via the official site, there were 9 players on Phil Steele’s preseason All-Big 12 teams and Austin McNamara made the All-America third team.

PHIL STEELE PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAMS
Third Team: P Austin McNamara

PHIL STEELE PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 TEAMS
First Team: WR Erik Ezukanma, OL T.J. Storment, DB DaMarcus Fields, P Austin McNamara
Second Team: LB Krishon Merriweather, LB Colin Schooler
Third Team: OL Dawson Deaton, LB Riko Jeffers
Fourth Team: RB SaRodorick Thompson

CBS Sports’ Ben Kercheval ranks the Big 12 schedules and has Texas Tech as the 5th toughest overall. This is not just non-conference, but schedules in general:

The Red Raiders should win at least two of their three nonconference games, and while Houston is technically a neutral-site opponent, the game is at NRG Stadium. There are some difficult road games, though, including a long trip to Morgantown to face West Virginia right after trip to Texas. Plus Tech has to play Oklahoma in Norman. That’s followed by a game against Iowa State, albeit after an open week. Yuck. No thanks.