Jay Bilas on men’s college basketball: ‘We need to go to quarters’

Jay Bilas was the color analyst for Wednesday night’s men’s college basketball game between Florida and Alabama. And in the final moments of the top-10 showdown, Bilas addressed some college basketball rules that he’d like to see changed.

With Florida leading 99-94 and only 1.7 seconds remaining in the game, Alabama took a time-out. During the break, play-by-play man Dave Pasch asked Bilas if he’d like to see college basketball adopt the NBA rule, which allows teams to advance the ball with a time-out. Bilas confirmed that he would like to see that, but also conceded, “There’s a lot of resistance to that among the college basketball traditionalists. They think you have to earn that real estate.” While Bilas noted that he disagreed, he added that he believes “Reasonable minds can differ on that” and said he didn’t foresee an imminent change there.

He then weighed in on two rules that need to be changed. The first one he addressed is how a college basketball game is broken up into only two halves, rather than four quarters.

“We need to go to quarters,” Bilas said. “We’re the only game of basketball played in the world that doesn’t have quarters — men’s college basketball. And the reason I like it is you can reset team fouls at the end of the first and third quarters. It’s just a smart thing to do.”

Jay Bilas on Men’s College Basketball rules:

“We need to go to quarters. We’re the only game of basketball played in the world that doesn’t have quarters… We have to change the replay rule… [Refs] spend more time watching TV than they do officiating the game…” 🏀🎙️ pic.twitter.com/yvBszTSRNz

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 6, 2025

Bilas then addressed college basketball’s review system, calling for it to be more limited.

“And we have to change the replay rule,” he said. “Make it like the NBA. Give each team one challenge. If they get their first one right, they keep it for one more. And then that’s it. Because the referees — and it’s not their fault, it’s the rule — they spend more time watching TV than they do officiating the game.”

While that’s not a new problem, the runtime of college basketball games has led to increased frustration in recent years. Both of Bilas’ proposed changes would, at least theoretically, help mitigate that issue.