Mapping the Recruiting Pipeline: 49 Offers, One Commitment
Felix Ojo was the top-rated offensive tackle in the 2026 recruiting class and the No. 5 prospect overall, with scholarship offers from 49 schools. That list included Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Michigan, Oregon, Notre Dame, and most of the rest of the sport. He committed to Texas Tech, a program that had never signed a top-20 recruit. Pull him up in the CFB Recruiting Pipeline and you can see the whole story at once: 49 grey lines reaching toward Mansfield, Texas, and a single gold one running to Lubbock.
Felix Ojo’s 49 offers. The gold arc is the school he chose: Texas Tech.
The Money Behind the Commitment
Ojo’s decision came with a number attached. He reportedly signed a three-year deal worth around $5.1 million, said to be fully guaranteed and, by most accounts, among the largest packages any recruit has landed (Yahoo Sports). The figures come from reports rather than any official disclosure, so treat the exact number as an estimate. Either way, for a player who has never taken a college snap, it is a striking sum.
Much of the money runs through The Matador Club, Texas Tech’s NIL collective, which co-founder Cody Campbell says has raised $63.3 million since 2022 (Yahoo Sports). Campbell is a former Red Raider offensive lineman who made a fortune in West Texas oil and gas, and he has said the program’s collective brought in more than anyone else’s.
Why It Works Now
A few years ago, paying a recruit this openly would not have been allowed. The House v. NCAA settlement changed that, clearing schools to share revenue directly with athletes starting in 2025 (overview). Once a school can put real money on the table, the biggest brand loses the built-in advantage it used to have. A 17-year-old can weigh Texas Tech against Texas the way a free agent weighs two contracts.
Texas Tech has been one of the most aggressive spenders of the new era, and Ojo is not the only result. As of now the Red Raiders’ 2026 class holds 22 commitments, eight of them blue-chip (four- or five-star). That group includes a second five-star in edge rusher LaDamion Guyton of Savannah, Georgia, whom Ojo reportedly helped recruit (Sports Illustrated). Switch the tool to school mode and the commitments converge on Lubbock from Montana to the Southeast.
Texas Tech’s 2026 commits, colored by rating. Blue-chip talent pulled in from Montana to Georgia.
Reading the Chase
My last map showed where a program’s signed players come from. This one shows the part that happens first: every offer a recruit is holding, and which one he takes. The offers tell you who is chasing a player. The commitment tells you who landed him.
That gap is wider than it used to be. A 49-offer spread once pointed straight at a blueblood. Now it can point at whichever program wrote the biggest check, and Texas Tech has been writing them. The map runs on offer and rating data from 247Sports and the College Football Data API, geocoded with the simplemaps US Cities Database. Pull up a five-star and see where his lines go.
Recommended Reading
- Local Fortress or National Brand: The Two Ways Programs Build a Roster
- Enrollment vs Endowment: Big Ten and SEC
- Purdue Tops the Charts in In-State Minutes for 2024–25 Season
Sources
- Texas Tech’s reported $5.1M deal for Felix Ojo (Yahoo Sports)
- The Matador Club raises $63.3 million (Yahoo Sports)
- Felix Ojo recruits LaDamion Guyton (Sports Illustrated)
- House v. NCAA settlement
- College Football Data API and 247Sports (offer and rating data)
- simplemaps US Cities Database (geocoding)
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