TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – If this was the end of college basketball as we knew it, it ended with a rousing ovation.
When Charles Bediako, a 23-year-old who played for the G League’s Motor City Cruise a week ago, checked in at 4:11 p.m. in the first half, he was welcomed back with a standing ovation from many of the 13,474 Alabama fans in attendance at Coleman Coliseum. Bediako will undoubtedly receive a much less welcoming response if he is eligible to play after Saturday night’s 79-73 loss to Tennessee, but Alabama fans seemed to enjoy the fact that the Crimson Tide defied the NCAA’s wishes and played him.
Bediako quickly scored four points after hitting the floor, including a dunk that once again brought an electric Tide crowd to its feet. If you were wondering why Alabama was willing to go through all this trouble to draw such strong and often negative reactions from its peers, this was it. In the first half, Bediako gave Alabama the kind of elite rim runner it has been missing, scoring eight points on 4-4 shooting. He finished with 13 points, two blocks and three rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
“I thought he was good,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “He almost led us in points for the workers. He’s got to get a few more rebounds for us, he knows that and he told me that in the first half when he came out. The guys all loved him and he’s a great teammate. He’s going to help us move forward, we just need to let him bounce back a little bit, especially on defense.”
That’s an important part to remember: Alabama is going through all these problems not because it’s a revolutionary and trying to stick it in the NCAA. This happens because it desperately needed a big backup guy, and Bediako was the best possible midseason signing available. Even with Bediako’s contribution, a shorthanded Alabama team without its second and third leading scorers lost its second straight home game for the first time in six seasons.
Bediako has another hearing on Tuesday to determine if this was a one-time foray into college basketball or if he can stay with this Alabama team for the rest of the season. When asked about it on Saturday night, Bediako dodged the question, but his answer indicated he doesn’t want it to end after just one match.
“My main focus is on the next game and just getting better with the team,” Bediako said.
If he is successful in obtaining a court order on Tuesday, it could be just the beginning of what’s to come in college basketball. The line between professional athlete and college athlete has already blurred to an almost infinitesimal difference. This year alone we have seen what we thought were clear and impenetrable rules fall apart.
Parallels with Baylor’s Nnaji
First, it was Baylor who brought in James Nnaji, who was drafted 31st overall in 2023 NBA draft but never played in the N.B.A nor collegial. Notably, the NCAA approved Nnaji’s waiver — it didn’t for Bediako — but it still felt like a crossroads.
Nnanji’s return prompted Bediako to consider a return to college basketball after playing for Alabama from 2021 to 2023. Bediako went undrafted in 2023 and has not played in the NBA, but has signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs. That should have prevented a collegiate return — once you waive eligibility and sign an NBA deal, there’s no going back, or so we thought — but he successfully obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) from playing in Saturday’s key home game against Tennessee.
Who knows what happens next. A school somewhere could become even more aggressive in trying to add a former NBA player to its roster. How about trying to convince a 15th NBA guy who isn’t playing to come back for another year of college basketball and a big NIL payday to go with it?
This is the world we live in. The NCAA is useless and hapless at enforcing its rules. Despite strongly worded statements from NCAA President Charlie Baker and Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt, Alabama moved forward undeterred. As long as you can appear before a friendly local judge, anything is possible these days. If Saturday night is any evidence, the fanbase is going to love it.
“What they’re doing now is exploiting the NCAA and in some ways they’re doing forum shopping, saying, ‘If that’s the case, we’ll jump from federal court to state court where we could get a more favorable outcome,” said Mitch Gilfillan, a former college basketball coach and now an attorney at Quinn Johnston. “Until Congress acts, and it doesn’t seem like they will, I think you’re going to continue to see more and more challenges.”
Scott Schneider, a Title IX and labor attorney, calls it “a real structural problem for the way the NCAA is organized.” Due to the NCAA’s unincorporated association structure, it is technically a citizen in every state in which it has an affiliated institution. That makes it vulnerable to state courts that may be friendlier to the local university than the national NCAA organization.
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Schools look for home field advantage
It took place in Tuscaloosa, where Tuscaloosa County Judge James Roberts has donated at least $100,000 to the Crimson Tide Foundation, according to its website. His wife, attorney Mary Turner Roberts, continues to represent former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, who has been charged with capital murder in the January 2023 shooting of Jamea Harris.
It’s not exclusively an Alabama situation, either.
It could help Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss get a sixth year of eligibility after he was denied by the NCAA and later filed a lawsuit in Mississippi’s Lafayette County. It could help Duke in the recently filed lawsuit against quarterback Darian Mensah, as a local judge had already granted a TRO to prevent Mensah from enrolling at another school.
“If they were a corporation or otherwise organized, they could take the lawsuit filed against them in Alabama to federal court at that point,” Schneider told CBS Sports. “But because they are citizens in Alabama, they can’t do that. You see this in the Chambliss lawsuit, you see this with (Bediako) in Alabama and you see it over and over again. If I can file a case in a favorable forum, I will probably get a good result.”
Alabama will learn more on Tuesday, but comments like Oats’ “he’s going to help us move forward” certainly indicate how the school thinks things will turn out. It is also not a bad election strategy if local judges side with the popular university.
After the match ended, fans waited to cheer Bediako on as he left for the locker room. A trio of elementary school fans had handmade signs they wanted signed by Alabama’s newest basketball player. In a surreal moment emblematic of where college sports are today, Bediako happily signed one that read: “Bama Pay$ Better.”
“Everyone came out to support,” Bediako said. “It felt great to be back, especially with an Alabama on my chest.”
To say the least, many in the sport don’t believe it’s that great that Bediako is back and playing. Critics believe moves like Alabama’s endorsement of Bediako have made the foundation of college basketball even shakier than ever. “We just need some people to stand up and take a stand,” Florida coach Todd Golden said earlier this week.
In Tuscaloosa, fans happily stood up and cheered its erosion.
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