It’s no secret that Coastal Carolina head baseball coach Gary Gilmore is not a fan of the current structure of collegiate athletics. Whether it be the transfer portal or NIL, Gilmore doesn’t believe those issues are being handled correctly by the NCAA. Don’t misunderstand, he’s all for his players making money through their name, image, and likeness; he’d just like to see a few guardrails put in place.
“We got in the portal, and honestly, we offered eighteen full scholarships, and we didn’t get a guy,” Gilmore said, referencing this past summer’s recruiting efforts by his staff. “You expect it from Power 5 people, but it would blow your mind the other people that have it (NIL money). I don’t mind the kids getting money; every one of them should get money, not just a handful. The scholarship thing is a joke. But we have no choice if we’re going to try to remain competitive at all; we have to at least come up with a sum of a certain amount of NIL money to keep our young players, not necessarily to attract a recruit, but I’m more worried about our young kids getting poached.”
Gilmore, who will be retiring at the end of next season, has reason to be fearful about losing key contributors to the transfer portal. For example, BT Riopelle, who played three seasons at CCU, will be the starting catcher this weekend as Florida entertains South Carolina in the NCAA Super Regionals. Meanwhile, pitcher Nick Parker is 8-0 with one complete game as a graduate transfer for Virginia. He started game one of the Cavaliers’ Super Regional matchup with Duke on Friday. Parker won two NCAA tournament games while making forty career starts for the Chanticleers.
In joining SportsTalk on Thursday night, Gilmore also spent some time recapping this past season while looking ahead to his final year in the dugout with the Chanticleers.
CCU HC Gary Gilmore — SportsTalk Conversation
