Amid discourse over NIL, transfer portal, Jay Bilas claims "quality of play is better than it’s been in a long time"

The NIL era in college sports has coincided with the historic House vs. NCAA settlement that mandates schools to revenue-share with student-athletes under their respective purviews. The settlement has coincided with a looser transfer portal that does not place limits on how many times players can transfer, leading to over 30% of the players in women's and men's basketball entering the portal last season.

During an interview with On3's Pete Nakos, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas weighed in on the matter, supporting the murky waters of paying players through NIL and revenue-sharing, claiming that it increased the quality of play in college basketball.

“The quality of play is better than it’s been in a long, long time,” Bilas said. “That’s one of the major reasons why you used to see a really good sophomore, really good junior was probably going to go to the NBA because they were playing for free. If you’re essentially playing for free, for your expenses only, that’s not as attractive as being out playing for money.

"And I’ve never been a believer — this love of the game thing. I played professionally, and I loved it more. I’ve never made that connection between playing for free means you love it, it doesn’t make any sense to me."

Analyst points out NIL and salary flaws in college sports

The House vs. NCAA settlement mandates that up to $20.5 million of the revenue generated by schools be shared with their players annually. However, during Tuesday's segment of the "CBS College Basketball" show, analyst Gary Parrish highlighted the flaw in the new rules, especially when combined with the unregulated NIL era that will reshape college sports (30:05).

"Do you really think some SEC program is going to be in a recruiting war with Villanova and going to have to sit there and deal with this possible fact?" Parrish said. "So now we just have to lose this five-star, program-changing prospect to Villanova.

"Do you really think an SEC program is going to let that happen? They're going to do the same thing they've always done. Do what they have to do to get the player on campus. That's where we're headed. Listen, lawsuits and cheating. It'll be lawsuits that change the rules again if they win. And if the lawsuits fail, then we're just back to cheating. You cannot cap the SEC."

NCAA President Charlie Baker revealed that the governing authority will relinquish its role of overseeing the new revenue-sharing rules and hand over the function to the new College Sports Commission, a body that has been widely called for since the dawn of the NIL era.