Texas Tech's rising star expected to earn $4 million in NIL next season
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The Red Raiders got a huge boost to their championship hopes earlier this month when rising star JT Toppin announced he was returning for one more season. As a sophomore during the 2024-25 campaign, Toppin led Texas Tech in scoring (18.2 ppg), rebounds (9.4 rpg), and blocks (1.5 bpg).
With numbers like that, it wouldn't have been surprising at all to see Toppin take his talents to the NBA. But in today's era of college athletics, NIL offers an opportunity to keep talent home in an effort to win championships. According to CBS Sports analyst Matt Norlander, Toppin is expected to haul in around $4 million in NIL next season.
NEW: JT Toppin is expected to make around $4M in NIL at Texas Tech next season, @MattNorlander reports🤯https://t.co/DFUayFSGMY https://t.co/vrV2CKRuJZ pic.twitter.com/EzzB07gs5p
— On3 (@On3sports) April 9, 2025
With Toppin back in the mix, Texas Tech is already viewed as an early championship favorite in 2025-26. In fact, several analyst have already listed the Red Raiders as at top 5 team heading into next season.
Of course, there's still some big question marks with this roster. Chance McMillian and Elijah Hawkins, who combined for 23.3 ppg last season, have both exhausted their eligibility.
Junior forward Darrion Williams entered his name into the transfer portal and indicated he would go through the draft process. But fans in Lubbock are still holding on to hope that Williams will return to Texas Tech for his senior season, after averaging 15.1 ppg last season as the team's second leading scorer.
The Red Raiders also lost Federiko Federiko to the portal in recent days, a guy who was a top 9 scorer on the team averaging 5.1 ppg.
The good news is that Texas Tech has also done a great job in supplementing those losses via the portal, landing four guys who are considered to be four-star transfer prospects:
- LeJuan Watts, SG - Washington State
- Donovan Atwell, SG - UNC Greensboro
- Tyeree Bryan, SG - Santa Clara
- Josiah Moseley, PF - Villanova
If Texas Tech can somehow find a way to keep Williams in Lubbock for one more season, this team has all of the pieces necessary to make another deep run in the tournament in 2025-26.
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Christopher Breiler launched Winged Helmet Media and began covering the Michigan Football program in an unofficial capacity in 2017. He then joined Wolverine Digest as part of the FanNation network in 2021 as a contributing writer, where he served as both a writer and a photographer on game days. In 2024, he took over as the Managing Editor for Michigan Wolverines On SI. In January of 2025, he took over as Publisher for Maryland On SI. His love for Michigan Football brought him into the industry, and his passion for being a content creator has led to some amazing experiences along the way.
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