Jay Bilas understands why you’re complaining, but he also doesn’t get it.
He wasn’t among the media members with the biggest gripes that North Carolina punched its ticket to the ‘Big Dance.’ His reaction was that he wasn’t going to get worked up about “the end of the line,” saying that the networks spend too much time talking about the 35th-best team in the country.
The Tar Heels would certainly fit that bill. Their official status as the last team in the 2025 NCAA Tournament was repeatedly criticized, especially with the school’s AD, Bubba Cunningham, as the chair of the Selection Committee.
There’s an inherent conflict of interest, and whether it ultimately matters or not, perception is everything. With that in mind, we at Awful Announcing suggested putting bracketologists on the Selection Committee. While Seth Davis kindly called it the “worst idea ever,” Bilas might have said we’re wasting our time.
Appearing on First Take this week, Bilas essentially told everyone to stop complaining.
“I used to kind of lose my mind about eight or 10 years ago about decisions like North Carolina versus West Virginia or Ohio State or Indiana,” said Bilas, “because I always felt like the committee, year after year, was not sticking to the principles that they said were important. But because they do this every year, there’s these decisions that kind of don’t make any sense, relative to their rhetoric. I’ve kind of said, ‘You know what? They’re going to do this every year.'”
Then, he delivered the kicker.
“It’s like complaining about the lines at the DMV,” said Bilas. “We can complain all we want to; it’s not going to change. They’re going to keep doing this, so you might as well just — like, I don’t even care anymore. Put them in the field, and then we’ll deal with the tournament.”
“It’s like complaining about the lines at the DMV. … It’s not gonna change.” 😳 @JayBilas didn’t hold back with @stephenasmith on his thoughts about the NCAA tournament selection process 👀 pic.twitter.com/OIaWBC0mnG
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 19, 2025
So, there you have it. The system’s broken, and the complaints are valid, but Bilas? He’s moved on.
Maybe the rest of us should, too.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.