Outgoing Coastal Carolina head baseball coach Gary Gilmore had a few things to say about NIL during a press conference Sunday following the last game of his career.
After 29 seasons as the head coach of the Chanticleers, Gilmore wrapped things up by venting his frustrations with the way the new era of name, image and likeness has taken shape.
"There has to be a better way. It's not just who can raise the most money and give it away," Gilmore said after the game. "There has to be a better way because, like I said, professional sports would go in the toilet in a hurry if we used this system. I mean, me as a college coach, this is what I have to deal with.
"You can sign your returning players to a scholarship, which binds you to them, but they can come out in July and go, 'I'm gonna go in the portal. I'm up at the Cape (League), and someone's gonna give me a big NIL deal. You were held accountable, coach. You had to honor that scholarship you gave me, but now I'm going to go in the portal and leave you hanging.' That's a messed-up system. I hope somebody fixes it. I'm gonna be honest with you, that part I'm going to enjoy not having to mess with."
Gilmore said he supports players getting paid, but he sees the current situation as untenable for smaller schools, noting that NIL has become a backdoor way for schools to recruit at all positions.
"I just don't agree with the portal and NIL. It's just me, my personal opinion," Gilmore noted after his final game. "I'll use football for example. The fourth-string tackle gets NIL. Well, NIL is supposed to be because you actually did something, and I just don't think that's what it's about. I think it should be for the guys that actually accomplish something and not just everyone across the board. They've turned every booster and everything all loose."
Gilmore likened the current situation to a professional structure where every player was a free agent at the end of every season.
"I'll use this analogy, and this is what's wrong," Gary Gilmore said. "If Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL had a system where everyone was a free agent every year, do you realize what chaos there would be? It would go away. You wouldn't have those three sports. If you did, in baseball it would be the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers, Texas, and the rest of the teams couldn't compete because they would spend whatever amount of money they needed to do it. And that's what's going on right now. I mean, there's not a level playing field. It's just ridiculous to me."
During his time at D-I Coastal Carolina, Gilmore won a national championship in 2016, with a total of 19 NCAA Tournament appearances.
