College sports are going through a transformational period with the introduction of NIL, the transfer portal and the extra COVID year.

While all Clemson sports are being impacted by the new landscape, baseball may be seeing the most impact.

With the loss of Billy Amick and tampering occurring with star freshman Cam Cannarella, head coach Erik Bakich discussed what NIL means in the Tigers program.

”NIL, you start saying those letters and people start to get this icky feeling and start cringing. For us, understanding what NIL is,” Bakich said. “You can do NIL equals and for Clemson baseball, NIL equals scholarships and if I could wave my NIL magic wand, it would be that our players could tell their family and parents that they don’t have to take out student loans.”

Bakich referenced this because he wants these college athletes to have the chance to choose Clemson because it’s the school they want to attend and not be hindered by money in that decision.

“For us, it is not a pay for play thing. If a player does so well in our program that he can capitalize on his name, image and likeness and does that on his own after he’s established in our program then great, but in terms of what we are trying to use it for, we are trying to use it so it can cover the cost of their education,” Bakich said.

He noted that in the 40-man roster system, 11.7 players are covered in scholarships whole 28.3 are not. That’s what he hopes to change and it’s a steep number he and donors will have to reach in the future.

”It’s north of seven figures if everyone was going to be covered. If you look at the blend of our roster and say it was 50/50 out of state, in state,” Bakich said. “You start looking at the cost of attendance for 28.3 kids and half of them are in state and half of them are out of state and what does that look like. It’s a big number but it’s not an insurmountable number. It’s something that we’re full tilt, full steam ahead on.