I’ll use this analogy ... 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 that would be? Gilmore said. “It would go away". You wouldn’t have those three sports. And if you did, in baseball, it would be the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Dodgers. The rest of the teams couldn’t compete.
Gilmore said the introduction of NIL, which he supports as a concept, has led to an "unlevel playing field,” especially for schools such as Coastal Carolina, which can’t put $2 million into its budget for baseball NIL compensation, as Gilmore said some schools nationally are doing. “It’s just ridiculous,” Gilmore said. “As much as I’m gonna miss the kids — and I’m gonna miss the heck out of them — dealing with that mess right now. ... There has to be a better way.
