Jay Bilas went on KSR today. When I heard that was happening I made it a point to tune in and listen because I wanted to see how he would address his recent tweet. If you didn't see (or are living under a rock), Bilas said there's a conflict of interest for SEC commissioner Sankey because he's on the infractions committee for UNC and he said that ESPN's 30-for-30 on Calipari missed UK's academic achievements. It was an inexplicable take and just the latest example of Bilas defending powerful people and institutions under scrutiny for scandals and rule breaking.
Matt Jones asked Bilas about that quote, his second question, and here's what Bilas said:
"No, it had nothing to do with whether he could be fair. It had to do with conflict of interest. You can have a conflict of interest and still be fair. ... but I don't think people perceive fairness comes. It was just to point out ... it has nothing to do with Greg Sankey. ... it has to do with just good business. You don't have conflicts of interest."
He went on to say there is "more than a perception" of a conflict of interest.
Jones then asked, fairly, where the line is. Is it a perceived conflict because UK and UNC are supposedly rivals. Bilas didn't really give a clear answer. He then went on to say it didn't have anything to do with Kentucky and UNC, even though he's the one who brought Kentucky up in his tweet about a conflict of interest.
Bilas then went on to say that no sitting commissioner should be on the committee ... "if you want to have a trustworthy process."
In short, if they were investigating Kentucky.