I have adapted about as well as any sports fan I know to the NIL Era, feeling it is better than anything the NCAA came up with previously in terms of how college athletes are treated.

Ed O’Bannon was a great player at UCLA, and he looked good on the cover of that PlayStation game. And if the NCAA had been a little bit more forward thinking — we can’t pay players but we can make millions off their likenesses, the governing body said — maybe things would be different now. 

Right now there are over 1,000 men’s basketball players in the transfer portal, and the number is increasing in the wake of Michigan’s national title win over UConn.  

It used to be just coaches that could slip from one program to the next, boosting exposure and/or paycheck. Now the Nike is on the other foot. 

Oh well — my biggest complaint is that a month ago I drew a straight line between the Idaho Vandals having three highly productive Idahoans in the lineup and their first NCAA Tournament in 36 years. 

Then Jack Payne of Boise hit the portal and Kolton Mitchell of Coeur d’Alene seems to be on the fence. Brody Rowbury, the Meridian big who transferred in from Southeastern Louisiana, was a senior.  

This is our world. Money Williams is in the portal after three very good seasons at Montana; he led the Big Sky Conference in scoring this season. Michigan just won it all with transfers like Morez Johnson, Jr. (Illinois), Elliot Cadeau (UNC), Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB) and Aday Mara (UCLA) playing huge roles.  

The tournament was still enjoyable; it is not “ruined” despite the best efforts of UConn.  

Johnson playing in a Final Four that included Illinois — while the Illini had former Arizona Wildcat Kylan Boswell in their lineup — reminded me of John Feinstein’s book, “A Season on the Brink.” One darkly comic passage had Indiana coach Bobby Knight perplexed that Delray Brooks played huge minutes one game and not grabbed a single rebound. 

That was 1985-86; a year later Indiana made the Final Four alongside Providence, which had a junior guard named Delray Brooks, Brooks, not good enough to be a Hoosier (according to the book), averaged 14.4 points and 3.9 boards for the Friars. 

Now, presumably, there are many more Delray’s. 

We haven’t addressed the women’s game, where UCLA reigned with four transfers, like Lauren Betts (Stanford) and Angela Dugalic (Oregon). Four in all.

Bruins women’s coach Cori Close has adapted as well as any coach to the current situation. Her comment on March 26, before their regional semifinal? “I’ve never been as tired,” she said. 

Wait until next year. Every UCLA starter and Dugalic is graduating. 

Sports Editor Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-758-4463 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.