Jay Bilas Says What He'd Do if He Were NCAA President

Jay Bilas joined Rich Eisen’s radio show on Thursday, and was asked what he’d do in a hypothetical situation where he replaced Mark Emmert as NCAA president. “I would probably have sport-specific governance, and I would immediately scrap the rulebook and get a new one,” Bilas said. “And I would operate the NCAA like an athletic association that runs athletic events instead of trying to run universities.”

“I’d let the universities handle their admissions and the way they do business on the academics side, and I would make the NCAA what it’s intended to be, which is an athletic association that handles sports. Rich, at the end of the day, this is just sports. We are not bringing drugs to market where there is a health concern for public safety. We are not handling explosives. We don’t need a compliance complex like we’ve got.”

Bilas said the biggest pushback he’d receive would be demands to be compensated greater than Mark Emmert’s $1.8 million.

In January, I asked Bilas if he would ever consider organizing the labor force in college athletics. Hear his answer at the 18:30-mark: