Texas Tech has quickly built up one of the biggest NIL funds in all of college athletics. The University’s “Red Raider Club” has quickly become one of the most successful NIL collectives, allowing Texas Tech to recruit at a high level across numerous sports.
The amount of money the Red Raiders are spending has been met with its fair share of controversy, but Texas Tech head football coach Joey McGuire says schools are just mad that the Red Raiders have caught up with them.
Joey McGuire Claps Back at Complaints Over Texas Tech NIL Spending
In the wake of the House v. NCAA case, which will allow college athletic departments to share up to $20.5 million in revenue with their athletes, CBS Sports analyst Bradon Marcello said that between revenue sharing and the “Red Radier Club,” Texas Tech would spend $55 million on its athletes in 2025.
It’s believed Texas Tech will pay its players $55 million (revenue sharing + NIL) among all its programs this year, making the Red Raiders perhaps the highest-paying college athletics program in the country, sources tell @CBSSports. https://t.co/Kw7KdwJCzA
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) June 9, 2025
While this number is an estimate and has yet to be confirmed as true, it would make the Red Raiders one of the highest-spending programs in the country.
The amount of money that Texas Tech is spending on NIL has been met with a lot of controversy with other programs, but head football coach Joey McGuire believes teams are just mad that they can’t keep up with the Red Raiders.
In an interview with the program’s social media team, McGuire explained that a parent of one of the top recruits in the country said that other programs were slamming Texas Tech’s NIL spending. McGuire said that Texas Tech just does it better than everyone else.
“All these people that are complaining about, they’ve either been doing it the right way or the wrong way in funding student athletes for a long, long time,” McGuire said. “And now they’re complaining because we decided to play it at a really high level.”
Texas Tech not only has the money, but McGuire explained that the athletic department’s staff is very proactive about getting funding and figuring out how NIL can allow the Red Raiders to compete with everyone else.
“We have people in place that have plans, and have been really aggressive with it, and understand that it could put us at a big advantage,” McGuire said.
The amount of money that Texas Tech has brought in has already significantly impacted the football program, as the Red Raiders brought in the country’s second-highest ranked transfer portal class in 2025.
Whether it pays off on the field has yet to be seen, but it’s clear that Texas Tech can recruit as well as anyone else, which, according to McGuire, is making many programs angry.
