Coastal Carolina's Gary Gilmore Goes Off On NCAA, NIL And Transfer Portal On His Way Into Retirement

The legendary career of Coastal Carolina's head coach Gary Gilmore came to an end on Sunday night in the NCAA Tournament, which gave him the perfect opportunity to unleash on the current state of college athletics with NIL. 

What were they going to do, fire him for his comments? After 29 seasons at the helm, Gilmore will ride off into the sunset after winning a national championship in 2016, with a total of 19 NCAA Tournament appearances. 

Gilmore said he will miss the players, administration, putting together a roster and the everyday life of being a Division I baseball coach. But there is one aspect of collegiate sports that the former Coastal Carolina coach will not miss, and that's the crazy world he was living in with Name, Image and Likeness. 

It's hard enough for some schools to compete at the highest level, but with the inception of NIL in 2021, having to deal with players in what is now just free agency with the transfer portal and offers being thrown at young athletes, Gilmore was happy to be done with that aspect of the job. 

WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - APRIL 9: Cameron Flukey #2 of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers talks to Head coach Gary Gilmore at David F. Couch Ballpark on April 9, 2024 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)

Gary Gilmore Believes There Must Be A Better Way

While he supports the players making money off their name, he was adamant that there has to be a better way for this to move forward. Obviously, Coastal Carolina is not in a position like other schools, when he highlighted that some rosters around the sport are costing upwards of $2 million per year, something that Coastal could not keep up with. 

"There has to be a better way. It's not just who can raise the most money and give it away," Gilmore noted postgame. "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."

Gary Gilmore Makes A Point About NIL, Using College Foootball

While this might sound like a coach that's just going-off on the current system in college athletics, Gary Gimore is not alone in his thoughts. The term ‘Free Agency’ has been thrown around a lot over the past year, with Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin making it a point to say it when discussing the transfer portal and NIL. 

In the coming year, schools across the country are going to have to make some very difficult decisions on how to allocate funds for different players, in different sports. For some, this will be a tough task, given that each sport is going to be allocated a different amount of money, which is where Gary Gilmore tried to make a comparison on how this whole system is currently working. 

"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."

Omaha, NE - JUNE 30:  Head coach Gary Gilmore (L) and player Anthony Marks (C) of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers celebrate with the team after defeating the Arizona Wildcats 4-3 for the National Championship at the College World Series Championship Series on June 30, 2016 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.  (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

When NIL was first introduced, the NCAA thought this would become an advertising venture, while coaches tried to warn folks what was coming. The 3rd sting lineman, who fans do not know, was making some type of money to play for the school. Now, it's nowhere near the amount a first-string linebacker, or starting pitcher would make, but Gilmore was making the obvious point that this has gotten out of control, which many of his colleagues would agree with. 

Sure, we've seen schools like SEMO advance in the NCAA Tournament by defeating Arkansas, who I promise has a much larger NIL warchest for baseball than the team they lost to does. Just look at Coastal Carolina, who won the College World Series in 2016, but that was before the days of NIL and the transfer portal, which makes the title that much more noteworthy. 

But at the end of the day, Gary Gilmore believes that if this ‘Free Agency’ continues, the sport will suffer. 

Free-Agency Every Year Would Kill Pro-Sports, Occurring In College

You've all heard the phrase now about how college sports is turning into professional sports with the transfer portal, along with players getting better offers to leave at the last minute. 

Coastal Carolina head coach Gary Gilmore went off on NIL and transfer portal ruining college sports via: Coastal Carolina

Gary Gilmore said that the uneven playing field in collegiate sports looks more like a lasting problem, than one that could be fixed in a shorter time period. If we're looking at this from all angles, Gary is right in saying that professional sports would crumble if they followed the college model of players being able to leave and chase money in a year's span. 

"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."

The legendary coach will now let others try to solve the problems that currently exist in college sports, while he rides off into the sunset with a national championship ring and a long list of memories.