Bakich just had an interesting interview with Qualk about NIL

Jan 15, 2024, 2:44 PM

He was basically reiterating the same things he said in his D1 baseball interview (which was posted in a recent article here on TNET in case anyone's interested), but I thought he made some interesting points. In short, the most apt description I could give of what he said was essentially that he believes that NIL is a good thing; it just needs some system fixes. I thought he made some good points, the most significant of which was that from what he observed, NIL was mainly being used by his players to help cover the cost of their tuition, pay for their apartment leases, buy their meal plans or food, and make payments regarding other such living essentials.

Bakich kept repeating the phrase "paying our bills" and seemed to be making an appeal to the fans to see NIL in a more positive light, while he did acknowledge the reasons why many fans have a sour opinion of it. He was emphasizing that his players are using NIL as a means to cover essential tuition and living expenses, not as a cash grab. It was much less clear to me how much, if at all, Bakich meant for that statement to apply to other teams across college baseball, but at least regarding Clemson, his message was clear.

He also pointed out how in baseball (and other sports with a similar interest level) teams are limited to only 11.7 scholarships for the entire roster. This is a far cry from football where the majority of the roster can be on full scholarship. Most of the baseball players are going to be either on only partial scholarship or no scholarship at all. Bakich's point was that NIL could help cover the remaining cost for players in that situation.

Based on this reasoning, he elaborated on how he found it nonsensical that NIL money is taxed whereas scholarship money is not. Furthermore, he pointed out how NIL money is actually double taxed because it gets taxed during the initial donation to the collective and then taxed again when the money goes to the athlete. Bakich also expressed a desire to make things more cohesive, as he said that he thought the complexity of all the different collectives confuses fans and discourages more potential donations. He pointed out how back when all donations just went through IPTAY, that made things extremely simple, but since IPTAY can't fund NIL directly, that means that people now have to donate to IPTAY and then also donate to additional collectives if they want to fund NIL in addition to the general donation to IPTAY.

Bakich's point was that getting rid of the tax and merging the all the NIL collectives together into IPTAY would make things more simple, efficient, and profitable. But overall, it seemed that Bakich was well aware of the general perception of NIL among the fandom and that he wanted to try to persuade people to see it in a more positive light as something that can help the team. Now, this is certainly a bold proposition, and while I think Bakich made some good points, I don't necessarily agree with all of them. Knowing how many of you feel about NIL, I imagine that many of you won't like this, so don't shoot the messenger, I'm just sharing what Bakich said because I thought it was interesting.

To further complicate matters, this made me think back to the Billy Amick debacle at the end of last season. There was a lot of speculation on TNET at the time about NIL money being a potential reason why Amick left Clemson for Tennessee. Now that may have all just been a false rumor, as we were later told that the main reason that Amick left was because of not seeing eye-to-eye with Bakich, mainly that Amick wanted to play third base and Bakich wasn't comfortable letting him do this because his defense wasn't good enough. Who knows if money played any sort of role in Amick's departure, but either way, it does add some slight intrigue into this situation in my opinion.

The NIL/transfer portal combination has certainly shown that it can hurt teams just as much as it helps if not more, as players have demonstrated that they will readily abandon their schools in search of greener pastures. But Bakich seems ready to fully embrace and advocate for both NIL and the portal (as he already has) despite the potential risks. I have some reservations about his recommended NIL system fixes because I believe that they could inadvertently open the door for more abuse. However, I must say that I like his overall philosophy and I believe that this strategy will end up being a net benefit to Clemson.

We've recently seen how essential it is for programs to be adaptable in order to be successful in college athletics, and those that fall behind the times tend to struggle. Offering practical and meaningful NIL opportunities to modern college athletes should bode well for keeping Clemson baseball an attractive destination for highly touted players. I just hope that this won't have to come at a detriment to the team's culture, but I believe that the staff can find a good balance, which really seems to be the key to navigating NIL in the modern landscape. In any case, Bakich is an aggressive coach, so it makes sense that he would have a bold approach to NIL. But so far, his aggression has served Clemson well, and I think it will continue to do so. Thoughts?

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