ARLINGTON, Texas — There were several advantages for Clemson opening up the 2025 season by playing in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown.

Head coach Erik Bakich has spoken multiple times about the level of competition, and how playing in a Major League venue will serve his team well as they get deeper into the season.

Bakich watched his team go 2-1 in the Showdown, with both wins coming over Top 25 teams.

However, there is another reason Bakich wanted to have the Tigers play on the national stage right out of the gate, and it’s a big one. The media attention that comes with playing on this level.

“To put the spotlight on our guys,” Bakich told The Clemson Insider from the team hotel. “This tournament gets a ton of coverage, a lot of media coverage nationally, as well as locally.”

College athletics are on the verge of another monumental shift. With the House Settlement expected to be finalized this summer, new guidelines are expected to be put in place surrounding NIL.

Part of the settlement is aimed at reigning in the pay-for-play model that has run rampant in recent years and college coaches all across the country are hopeful that in the future, NIL deals will have to be legitimate endorsement deals.

“We’re four months and 15 days away from the world changing, NIL turning into commercially driven deals,” Bakich added. “The more we can put the spotlight on our guys, the more we can get their following up. Get them to be more attractive to these commercial businesses that may want to say, ‘You know what, Clemson baseball is different. Their players are unique. They’ve got influence on social media. Let’s pay them to advertise for us or help them market and sell our stuff.'”

Since his hiring as head coach ahead of the 2023 season, Bakich has always done everything he could to put as much spotlight as possible on his players in an effort to increase their marketability.

Just last fall, the Clemson Baseball team played an exhibition against the wildly popular Savannah Bananas in Doug Kingsmore Stadium, helping many players widen their reach on social media.

Now Bakich is looking to increase that reach even further. The head coach is making a simple request of each and every member of the Clemson fan base. A request so simple that all it takes is one click of a button. And most importantly, it’s free.

“I just ask the Clemson community, please just follow our guys online,” Bakich said. “If Clemson baseball has 154,000 followers on Instagram, let’s get our players, every single one of them, as many followers as possible. Even if you’re not donating NIL dollars to the collective or to whatever, just follow our guys on social media. It will help them secure either affiliate marketing deals or maybe some business deals for them down the road that could be very, very financially beneficial and lucrative for them. So that’s the ask of the Clemson fan base, at the minimum, just follow our guys on social media that would be incredible.”