Baseball America's Teddy Cahill: South Carolina needs to 'pony up' to compete in today's age of college baseball

When South Carolina decides on its next head baseball coach, it won’t just be a small financial decision. It won’t just come down to how much money it will take to hire the new coach. It’s a much larger investment that goes beyond one salary.

For the Gamecocks, they are in a conference where almost every program is up to their standards, or in some cases are ahead of them. The SEC set a record this season by sending 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament. And it’s hard not to argue that most of those schools are in better shape than South Carolina is.

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Over the last few years, multiple programs have not just invested money into hiring new coaches but also upgrading facilities among other things. Around the league, there are nine programs that pay their coach more than $1 million. And South Carolina wasn’t one of them when Mark Kingston was in charge.

“I mean, it’s crucial. You look around and head coaching salary is probably a poor measure of how invested a program is. There are probably better measures out there. But it’s a quick and easy one,” Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill said during the GamecockCentral Takeover Hour on 107.5 The Game.

“And so if we’re going to sit here and talk about how does South Carolina get back? Well, that’s a big part of it. If you’re now in the bottom half of the league in salary, what else are you in the bottom half of that takes me a little longer to look up? Where are you in terms of overall coaching salary pool? Where are you in terms of what’s available to NIL and on and on down the list. So I mean, I think investment is crucial.”

In terms of pouring money into the program, South Carolina built Founders Park back in 2009. At the time, it was a $35-plus million facility with the ability to seat more than 8,000 fans. Even now, you could say it still holds up. But that was 15 years ago.

And while that may not seem like a long time ago, it is when you look around the SEC. For instance, after Florida won the College World Series in 2017, a new stadium was built and completed in time for the 2021 season. That ended up being a $65 million investment.

Even at Tennessee, Lindsey Nelson Stadium has been around since the early 1990’s. And since then, the University has made renovations to enhance the facilities over the years. The latest development are upgrades to the ballpark that will cost more than $100 million.

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One common factor with these two examples? Both are winning programs, just like South Carolina. Except they’re reaping the rewards of putting money into the product with multiple appearances in Omaha.

If South Carolina wants to be competitive moving forward, Cahill said investments will have to be made.

“That’s just the reality of SEC baseball in the 2020’s. You have to be ready to pony up if you want to compete with the likes of a Texas, an LSU, the Mississippi schools care just about as much as anyone, what Arkansas and Florida are doing, Tennessee now, and even Kentucky,” Cahill said. “You look at them, new stadium into hosting a Super Regional for the first time. These are all schools who have gotten serious or have been serious for a long time and stayed really serious. It’s just a really hard league in terms of keeping up with the financial might that everyone else is throwing in there.”

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