"Jay Bilas needs to be commissioner": Fans react as NCAAB analyst suggests a way to fix college athlete transfer chaos

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Jay Bilas proposes a big change to the college game - Image credits: IMAGN, Getty (Jay Bilas)

College basketball analyst Jay Bilas proposed the use of contracts as his solution for college basketball's controversial transfer portal situation. Unlike the old system, players don't need to wait out a year before suiting up for a new team.

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Athletes can now enter the transfer portal and begin playing for another program right away. The change has led to a massive player movement in the offseason.

"The NCAA used to die on the hill of amateurism in court, now they're dying on the employment hill," he said while speaking to Coach K on SiriusXM Sports on Monday. "They can't be employees. We can't have them as employees.
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"But if they just sign the players to contracts, say, 'Hey, we're willing to offer you a three-year deal with an option for a fourth. If you get arrested, we get to terminate, it's mandatory class attendance, you have to do this, this and this.' "And there's gonna be a buyout in there, we negotiate the amount of the buyout ... It's pretty simple."
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Fans reacted positively to Jay Bilas' take in the comment section:

"Makes way too much sense for the NCAA to actually implement," a fan wrote.
"Bilas needs to be commissioner of college basketball!" a user added.
"Absolutely the right direction to take," another fan commented.

More fans joined in to praise the ESPN insider and analyst:

"I like that. That will stop some of this hopping around. Great idea!👏," a user added.
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"12 year olds sign and uphold contracts. Why can’t college athletes?," a fan commented.
"This makes perfect sense 👌," another user wrote.
Fans react to Bilas' take on solving player retention in college basketball | via @siriusxmsports/ig
Fans react to Bilas' take on solving player retention in college basketball | via @siriusxmsports/ig

Jay Bilas shared a similar take while discussing Kevin Willard move

Jay Bilas boldly insinuated that Kevin Willard's move from Maryland to Villanova could have involved tampering while appearing on the "College GameDay" on Saturday. With that, he pointed at the double standards in how players and coaches are treated in terms of loyalty.

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"Say all this stuff about players but we don't apply that to coaches, that's a contradiction to the point of hypocrisy," he said (at 6:08). "I'm not saying don't go go ahead, but let's not apply these ridiculous rules to the players."

During that discussion, Jay Bilas again highlighted his idea to fix the transfer portal movement:

"I've been saying this for over a decade now: sign the players to contracts. Negotiate within arm's length with the players or negotiate a collective bargaining agreement."
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The NCAA tournament in nearing the Final Four games. However, there has already been significant movement in the transfer portal. Some of these include New Mexico's Donovan Dent signing with UCLA, Yaxel Lendeborg's exit from UAB and women's scoring leader Ta'Niya Latson's exit from FSU.

Dawn Staley, Geno Auriemma, or Kim Mulkey - who is NCAAW's highest-paid coach? Find out here

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Edited by Brad Taningco
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