Gophers baseball coach John Anderson opens vein on NIL, transfer portal

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - John Anderson spent nearly 45 minutes on Tuesday talking about embarking on his 43rd and final season with the University of Minnesota baseball team.

He’s retiring after the 2024 season, and starts his final year with 1,365 career wins and 19 NCAA Tournament appearances. Anderson also opened a vein on the challenges college baseball coaches are facing in the new era of name, image and likeness, and student-athletes being able to transfer without penalty.

That’s on top of challenges for Division I teams in the Upper Midwest that they’ve already been facing for decades. For the first time in Anderson’s near 50 years, the Gophers had outdoor practices and scrimmages in January and February at Siebert Field thanks to our mild winter.

In the new ERA of NIL and the transfer portal, Anderson was blunt and candid.

"There’s no question that’s created a whole another set of challenging circumstances. Now you’re into a whole new territory with NIL, college athletics has been turned upside down. The transfer portal has become the free agent pool, that’s where you go if you want to be a free agent and, like it or not, there’s people working around the edges trying to get people to leave programs to go to other programs to build national championship teams," Anderson said. "College athletics, there is no salary cap anymore."

He referenced LSU, which went 54-17 and won the 2023 College World Series. They have $100,000 in NIL money for players, on top of scholarships and academic grants. Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich said recently it'll cost $1 million in NIL to keep his 2024 team together.

"They advertise it regularly. Come to LSU, we’ve got money and we want to build a championship team. The northern schools, the mid-majors, you recruit somebody and develop a player, there’s no guarantee you’re going to keep him unless you can come up with enough cash to keep him in your program," Anderson said. "You can recruit guys and you can develop guys, it doesn't mean they're going to stay. I’m not complaining, it’s a fact of life, it’s the climate we’re living in. It doesn’t resemble the college athletics that I joined back in the 80s."

Not surprisingly, there’s also a greater financial commitment to college baseball in the south, where it can be played year-round. Colleges are building $80-$90 million stadiums, and some coaches are making more than managers in professional baseball.

That’s where teams like the Gophers and Anderson have to rely on player development and relationships to keep their players. One of his top returning pitchers turned down an NIL deal at another school to stay at Minnesota this season.

"The level of commitment in some parts of the country is gigantic. We know who where are here, not complaining. I understand who we were, we have to understand what we value and what we need to do to have a successful and competitive program," Anderson said. "We’re in a new time, and you’re going to have to adjust."

We’ve heard about NIL in college football and basketball, but that’s what it looks like in baseball. Anderson and the Gophers start their 2024 season on Friday against CSU Bakersfield in Surprise, Ariz. Their home opener is set for April 2 against South Dakota State.