Red Raider Club getting a facelift for NIL era of college athletics
The Red Raider Club is getting a bit of a facelift in the age of name, image and likeness.
The Texas Tech athletics department announced Thursday the Red Raider Club, the primary fundraising arm for Tech athletics, will be modernized to fit the evolving landscape of college sports.
Along with updating the logo, website and marketing materials, the Red Raider Club will now be partnering with the Matador Club, the NIL collective formed in 2022 that has provided deals for the football, baseball and softball players.
The two entities will collaborate while remaining separate. The Matador Club will now become a corporate sponsor as well as being the "official and exclusive NIL collective of Texas Tech Athletics," the news release states.
"Texas Tech Athletics intends to compete at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics," Tech Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said in the release, "while maximizing the potential our our student-athletes' lives and careers when they graduate."
The partnership between the athletics department and the Matador Club "aims to eliminate competition in fundraising efforts and donor confusion while also increasing overall fundraising support and the annual donor base of each organization," the release stated.
The athletics department cannot coordinate any NIL activities for student-athletes based on state and NCAA guidelines. It can, however, now provide education and fundraising support to The Matador Club.
The Red Raider Club is also seeking to grow its donor base and increase dollars raised annually to help achieve elevated goals. One of those goals is "STRIVE," an academic achievement award that provides up to $5,980 to scholarship student-athletes who reach certain academic requirements. This initiative requires an additional $1.8 million in fundraising annually.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Red Raider Club getting a facelift for NIL era of college athletics
