Bilas -- who seems just as frustrated as most by a system that allows the NCAA and Texas A&M to profit off of Johnny Manziel while preventing the reigning Heisman Trophy winner from selling his own signature -- began a little experiment in an attempt to highlight the hypocrisy. It started with this tweet:
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH, type in "Manziel" in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/N7KNvXIu24
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
Yep, that's proof that it's possible to go into the search engine of ShopNCAASports.com, type the name "Johnny Manziel" and end up on a page filled with items connected to Texas A&M and Manziel's jersey number despite the NCAA's long insistence that specific jerseys for sale aren't connected to specific players. Bilas did the same thing with Alabama's A.J. McCarron, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater, Clemson's Tajh Boyd and a slew of other players. It was incredible to watch unfold ... for as long as it lasted.
Best I could tell, Bilas was prepared to go all day. But a funny thing happened about two hours after Bilas started the experiment. Suddenly, the ShopNCAASports.com search engine was disabled, presumably by somebody who realized the governing body was getting embarrassed in a pretty public way. Well done, Mr. Bilas. Well done.
Here's a handful more:
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH, type in "Clowney" in upper right search box, and hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/pHUKGqoNuu
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH and type "Tajh Boyd" in upper right search box, then hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/0DF68wM0tW
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013
Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH and type "NCAA Executive Committee" in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/7mwaNKO3TA
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013