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Jay Bilas Wants More “Basketball People” On The NCAA Selection Committee

Jay Bilas was fired up Sunday over what he saw as undeserved NCAA Tournament berths for VCU and UAB, as well as snubs for the likes of Colorado. Yesterday, Bilas appeared on Pardon the Interruption, and while he was (unfortunately, for our purposes) calmer this time, he still has some clear opinions on what has to happen to prevent more faulty selections in the future.

Namely, Bilas wants “basketball people” – and he made clear that he didn’t “mean some nose-in-the-air snobbery that you had to have played or coached.” You do, however, “have to have studied the game” and “made it part of your life’s work.” Additionally, he’s heard people on the selection committee talk about how the 10 people on the committee all approach the selection process in different ways – he wants consistency in the process by which all committee members do the job.

Sounds logical. Host Tony Kornheiser, though, had one worry – the risk of “cronyism” in a committee loaded with “basketball people” who may have strong relationships with many of the “basketball people” whose fates they’re charged with deciding. He asked Bilas about that. Fair question. Bilas’ response: “Yeah, there are no cronies in the NCAA.” (You must watch the video below to truly appreciate just how thick he laid on the sarcasm.) Fair answer.

Really, to us, Bilas’ remarks sound like common sense. It’s like he said: “basketball people” on the selection committee have earned praise for their “invaluable” contributions in the past, so wouldn’t an entire committee full of them be especially “invaluable”? Video of the segment, via ESPN, below.