NCAAB analyst Jay Bilas shares his honest thoughts on NIL

For years, people called for college athletes to get financially compensated for their efforts. Everybody knew they got paid to commit to some programs, but it wasn’t allowed.

Now, with the NIL era, athletes are finally getting what they always deserved. Even so, some claim that it’s not a good thing, as if the players weren’t the ones putting their bodies on the line.

However, that’s not the case with ESPN analyst and former Duke legend Jay Bilas, who took to social media to explain why the NIL era is actually good for the college basketball landscape.

Jay Bilas is a fan of NIL

“NIL is, I think, beneficial for everybody,” Bilas said. “What it does is allow smaller schools access to better talent than they would have had otherwise. Ten years ago, no player being recruited by the University of Kansas, Wichita State would not have a shot at any of those guys. Now, Wichita State might be able to offer Kansas’ fourth best recruit enough money to be Wichita State’s best recruit. They may be able to get a player like that. That’s possible now. It was not possible before.”

Bilas added that talent is now more spread out than it’s ever been, and that’s ultimately a positive thing for the product, the sport, and most definitely for the players.

At the end of the day, powerhouses will have to adapt or perish. The field is leveled now, and the days of having a huge edge over other smaller programs are long gone.