Correct: Bill Self Thinks NIL Has Been Good For College Hoops Because There's More Parity And Bigger Chance Of Upsets

I know people lose their mind over NIL. The moment a coach retires (even if they are old and would be retiring anyways) everyone screams NIL did this. Now, I do still have a problem with the transfer portal. I don't care if guys transfer, they have the right to a free transfer. I'd simply put it where they get 1 free transfer and then can transfer again without having to sit out if a coach leaves. Think that keeps everyone happy in the grand scheme of things.

But it's important to Bill Self to say this because on the shortlist of faces in college basketball. When we think of the sport, we tend to think of coaches first. Self has been around forever, if people want to lose their minds when Jim Larranaga retires and blames NIL/transfer portal, the same should happen when Self talks about it helping the sport. 

Here's what I'll say. We're in the middle of one of the best college basketball regular seasons we've had in a few years. You got the NPOY race between Broome and Flagg. You have the SEC being historically great so far. You have coaches changing programs in their first year. You have upsets all over the place and mayhem any time teams go on the road. It's everything that has made college basketball great in the past. You look at the likely first team All-Americans and it's going to be Broome (multi-year player at Auburn after transferring), Cooper Flagg (the No. 1 recruit we've known about for years), Braden Smith (3-year starter at Purdue), Kam Jones (4-year player at Purdue) and then figure out the 5th spot. There's plenty of wrong in the sport, but this year isn't the year to bitch about it. Bill Self is 100% right here.