Texas Tech and Lubbock have been trending on Twitter over the last 24 hours because of an announcement yesterday that the Matador Club, the NIL Collective of Texas Tech, was investing in 100 Texas Tech football players. The deal will be a $25 thousand contract that will be fulfilled through community service and outreach in Lubbock.

The $2.5 million dollar team-wide NIL deal caught a lot of different people's attention yesterday with most of them assuming that The Matador Club Founder Cody Campbell was footing the bill.

While I'm sure that Campbell has put money into the Matador Club, this is truly a group effort by Texas Tech's massive alumni base.

I mean George Eads was on CSI forever, I bet he's got some cash. Barry Corbin and Brad Leland are also a couple of actors who could pitch in a few dollars. Ever heard of Josh Abbott, Pat Green, or Flatland Calvary? I bet they can pull some spare change.

I bet Darvin Ham and Tony Battie have some of that NBA money to donate to the Matador Club for Men's basketball use.

Kliff Kingsbury, Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Zach Thomas, and Patrick Mahomes? Jordyn Brooks is a rising star about to get a second NFL contract. Keke Coutee is still hanging around cashing checks. That's not even to mention all the former football players that just went into business and are now successful in their own rights.

Texas Rangers dugout reporter Emily Jones? Red Raider.

Ever heard of businessman Richard Anderson? How about 2005 WSOP champion Todd Brunson? Lawyer Mark Lanier? Politician Jodey Arrington? All Red Raiders.

The man who invented the Lunchable? Red freakin' Raider.

This was a new one to me, but as I was perusing Twitter I stumbled upon this:

"Everyone always brings up oil money, but always forgets the guy who invented Lunchables is a Red Raider." Now, color me shocked. I knew of everyone I listed above, but who have I never known that Mr. Lunchable himself was a Red Raider?

A quick google search took me to a Daily Toreador article from 2013 with the headline, "Texas Tech Alumnus Develops Lunchables". I'm intrigued. "Lunchables come in many different varieties, some including items to make pizza, nachos, chicken nuggets, and crackers with cheese." Yes, go on. "More importantly to Tech, these snack packs originated from a Tech alumnus’ idea."

No wonder I loved Lunchables so much growing up.

According to the same DT article, Richard Hawkins was at Texas Tech from 1982-1985 and was originally recruited to Texas Tech to be a founding member of Texas Tech's legendary meat science program. Hawkins wasn't at Oscar Meyer long but left his mark. Since then he's worked to extend the shelf life of Slim Jims, created shelf-stable meat for the US Military, and started his own research company.

 

“I’m very proud to say I’m from Texas Tech,” he told the Daily Toreador. “They promoted entrepreneurial spirit, and I think that helped make Tech a little more special.”

I don't know for certain that any of the above-mentioned people actually gave or will give anything to the Matador Club, but for everyone in this story, there are 100 more Red Raider alums to match what any one person can give. In fact, with an alumni base that is exploding with more than 300,000 current living alumni, there's no reason why the Matador Club can't compete with every other NIL collective that's doing the same type of deals.

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