Administration
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams on the revenue-sharing strategy for the athletic program. There are a few key takeaways here, the first should be that as of July 1, 2025, the Matador Club will no longer exist because it will have served it’s purpose and all colleges that want to participate will utilize the revenue-sharing that’s being floated in the House vs. NCAA case (all of the details have still has not been agreed upon). At that point, all financial aspects will be in-house within the athletic department and not at all handled by the Matador Club. At that point, athletes will likely sign contracts with the university, some of them being multi-year contracts is my guess, and each coach will determine how that pie will be broken up. Actual NIL can still be utilized by the athletes (say a dealership wants to use an athlete’s NIL, that’s still okay), but the Matador Club will have served it’s purpose. Then the Red Raider Club will be the main charitable focus for fans.
Some of you have already figured this out, but Cody Campbell and the Matador Club saw a market opportunity, one last opportunity to pay whatever they want for student-athletes to come to Texas Tech before the revenue-sharing model was implemented. I plan on writing about this here soon, but wanted to get that out there, they were obviously ahead of the game and wanted a final push of opportunity for the football program.
On the Court
The Lady Raiders notched their first Big 12 win of the year with a 74-59 victory over Houston, largely behind a 28-point 2nd quarter. Bailey Maupin has been on a bit of a heater and scored 28 points on 10 of 18, a career-best in points. Sarengbe Sanogo had her first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. They’ll have a bit of a break and won’t play again until January 1st on the road against Arizona State.
On the Gridiron
Perhaps the final transfer:
+ Buffalo K Upton Bellenfant (6-2/180): Bellenfant handled both kickoffs and field goals for the Buffs and was just a sophomore last year. Bellanfant kicked 43% for touchback last year and on the field goal side of things, he made 14 of 16 field goals and 29 of 29 extra points.
CONFIRMED (17):
+ OT Howard Sampson (6-8/325) North Carolina
+ OT Hunter Zambrano (6-5/305) Illinois State
+ OT Will Jados (6-8/307) Miami (Ohio)
+ WR Reggie Virgil (6-4/190) Miami (Ohio)
+ TE Terrance Carter, Jr. (6-2/239) Louisiana
+ RB Quinten Joyner (5-11/216) USC
+ QB Mitch Griffis (5-11/193) Wake Forest
+ DT Skyler Gill-Howard (6-2/285) Northern Illinois
+ DT Lee Hunter (6-4/320) UCF
+ DT Anthony Holmes, Jr. (6-2/295) Houston
+ OLB Romello Height (6-3/240) Georgia Tech
+ CB Brice Pollock (6-1/190) Mississippi State
+ CB Amier Boyd-Matthews (6-1/180) UTEP
+ CB Tarrion Grant (6-2/197) Purdue
+ DB Dontae Balfour (6-2/185) Charlotte
+ S Cole Wisniewski (6-4/218) North Dakota State
+ K Upton Bellenfant (6-2/180) Buffalo
HIGH SCHOOL:
+ Frenship QB Holden Phillips (6-1/190)
Current transfer portal team rankings:
Rivals: 3 (1 in Big 12)
24/7 Sports: 1 (1 in Big 12)
On3: 2 (1 in Big 12)