Gerry Glasco and the Red Raiders play Mississippi State in the quarterfinal matchup of the Women's College World Series on Wednesday.
No. 11-seed Texas Tech takes on Mississippi State at 11 a.m. CT to kick off the 2026 Women's College World Series at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.
It's the Red Raiders' second straight trip to the NCAA tournament's esteemed final site. With another historic season filled with record-breaking performances by superstar athletes, Tech is on the precipice to compete for a national title, just as they did a year ago as the national runners-up.
However, much of the national conversation surrounding the Red Raiders' is the program's infamous commitment to NIL opportunities and the transfer portal in building the current roster.
This is Year 2 with generational pitcher NiJaree Canady in Lubbock after she became the sport's first $1 million earner in the NIL era upon transferring from Stanford to Texas Tech.
After she carried the team to OKC last year, head coach Gerry Glasco built on the momentum by recruiting the nation's No. 1 transfer portal class, which included numerous All-Americans and conference players of the year from the season prior.
Glasco addressed the commonality of the portal briefly last week as Mia Williams beat her former team in the Gainesville Super Regional, saying, "players transfer every day."
At this week's pre-World Series press conference, Glasco said the target on Texas Tech's back is being used as motivation.
"If softball needs me to be the villain, I’m all about it. Let’s go," the coach said. "It’s fun. I embrace that role."
He began the discussion by addressing the perception of why Texas Tech attacked the portal the way it did.
"(ESPN's) Holly (Rowe) was talking about 15 out of 23 players are transfers. I only had three, so what am I going to do, you know?" Glasco said. "You have to grow the program, and I think it's confusing. It's like we're doing things that have maybe never been done before, or at least not been done in a similar fashion, and it's confusing, but for us on the field, we just work every day. We work really hard, and I'm enjoying every moment."
The players have fed into the coach's mindset.
"We like being Texas Tech," said Jackie Lis, who was named a third-team All-American by NFCA. "No matter what role we’re going to get, we’re going to thrive in it and we’re going to do us."
The two-way star Terry, who was the team's only first-team All-America selection by NFCA, said she expected this label after committing to Texas Tech, a school that has already gained such a reputation with the football team also finding success in NIL and transfer portal spaces.
"Looking at us as villains, it’s something I kind of figured walking into Texas Tech," she said.
"But that doesn’t define us… we’re all playing softball at the end of the day."
This concept of villainy is something Terry quoted exactly back on May 15 in a conversation with The Athletic. She's carried it with her to OKC, and the same message applies as the team gets more and more attention.
"I definitely feel like people think we’re villains," Terry said, going into the Lubbock Regional. "We have a target on our back, for sure. We hear it a lot: 'Oh, they just bought a team.' But we know what we’re doing, and what other people say doesn’t matter."
For Canady, who made another All-American team and is appearing in her fourth straight WCWS, the conversation is less about the player movement and more about general exposure for the sport, which, since she has burst onto the scene, has seen a dramatic uptick in positive notoriety.
"Everyone talks about wanting to grow softball, wanting more eyes on softball," she said. "Transfers happen in male and female sports. So if you want the game to grow, this stuff kind of comes with it."
"I feel like everyone talks about wanting to grow softball too, and wanting more eyes on softball, wanting people to watch softball and wanting just female sports to be as big as male sports," Canady said, "and at the end of the day, transfers happen in male and female sports, so if you want the game to grow, that stuff kind of comes with it.
"I just wanted to get some more eyes on softball, and at the end of the day, I feel like that's what everyone wants."
Not many collegiate athletes, regardless of sport, are as primed as Canady when it comes to managing media attention and the experience that comes with addressing issues with a mic in her face. She's also more accustomed to the bright lights of a national spotlight in the WCWS than anyone in the field.
For the newcomers who are reaching Oklahoma City for the first time, it's a surreal experience.
"For me, it’s very exciting to be here. It’s my last year playing collegiate softball, so I’m just trying to take it one game at a time and try to get as far as we can," said Lis, a transfer from Southern Illinois.
For others, they return to the pinnacle of the sport wearing different colors than last year. Taylor Pannell (Tennessee), Williams (Florida) and Terry (UCLA) each played for teams that qualified for the 2025 WCWS.
"It’s definitely very fun to be back, different jersey on," Terry said. "It’s been insane the way me and this team have evolved from the fall to now."
Through it all, the Red Raiders have reached the end of the season as united a group as ever. They carry the dreams of Texas Tech's first national championship into Thursday's WCWS opener.
"We can't control what people are going to say about us," Lis said, "and they don't know our journeys. I do and the rest of the team does, so we know why we're here, what we're supposed to do here, so we try to control that side of things and not really focus on what everybody else might think of us."
