This is the epitome of modern day recruiting, no matter the sport.
Pete Nakos of On3 reported Friday that the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns have emerged as the two programs most likely to land top 2025 women's basketball recruit Aaliyah Chavez. Chavez has already announced her top five choices of OU, Texas, South Carolina, Texas Tech and UCLA.
Chavez is scheduled to announce her commitment at 2 p.m. March 25, which she confirmed on Friday.
The day is coming !!@SCNext @LubbockISDTV pic.twitter.com/TuxDxGJFMI
— AALIYAH CHAVEZ (@AALIYAH2CHAVEZ) March 7, 2025
According to Nakos, a bidding war has brewed between OU and Texas. Nakos reported that Chavez is "commanding a NIL package valued at $1.5M annually." However, if NIL is a major factor, don't count out hometown Texas Tech yet. The Red Raiders have been throwing big numbers at recruits recently, including in women's sports with softball pitcher NiJaree Canady.
Based on On3's NIL valuation, $1.5 million would make Chavez the highest-valued women's college basketball player this season, tied with LSU's Flau'jae Johnson. If Chavez did attend OU for that amount, she'd also be the second-highest valued Sooner athlete behind quarterback John Mateer, whose NIL valuation is $2.7 million.
Chavez could be a generational talent, and likely around four years in women's basketball, but it's still worth questioning if that money could be more beneficial buying multiple good players instead of one great player.
A point guard, Chavez is a consensus five-star recruit and every major recruiting service ranks her as the No.1 prospect in the entire 2025 class. Her 247Sports Composite score is a perfect 1.0000.
Chavez is fresh off leading Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas, to a Texas Class 5A Division II state championship. According to MaxPreps, she averaged 34.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.7 steals a game this season as a senior. In her career, Chavez averaged 32.1 points.