Alabama fans cheered Charles Bediako’s loss to Tennessee because of his victory against the NCAA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – If this was the end of college basketball as we knew it, end it with a rousing chant.

As Charles Bediako, a 23-year-old who played for the G League’s Motor City Cruise last week, came on at 16:11 of the first half, he was greeted and greeted with cheers from the 13,474 Alabama fans inside Coleman Coliseum. Bediako will no doubt get a less positive reaction if he is eligible to continue playing in Saturday night’s 79-73 loss vs. Tennessee, but Alabama fans seemed happy that the Crimson Tide defied the NCAA’s wishes and played him.

Bediako quickly scored four points after coming down, including a dunk that brought the electric Tide crowd to its feet. If you’re wondering why Alabama is willing to go to all this trouble, only to provoke a strong and often negative reaction from its peers, it was. In the first half, Bediako gave Alabama the kind of elite runner it had been missing, scoring eight points on 4-4 shooting. He finished with 13 points, two blocks and three rebounds in 25 minutes of play.

“I thought he was great,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “He almost led us with points in blue. He has to get us a few more rebounds, he knows it and he told me that in the first half when he came out. All the boys loved him and he is a great partner. He will help us go forward, we have to get him to tie the ball a little more especially in the defensive area.”

That’s the important part to remember: Alabama is going through all this trouble not because it’s revolutionary and trying to stick with the NCAA. It’s doing so because it needed a backup big man, and Bediako was the best midseason addition available. Even with Bediako’s contribution, Alabama’s scoreless secondary and third base team lost its second straight home game for the first time in six seasons.

Bediako has another hearing on Tuesday to decide if this was a one-man deal to return to college basketball or if he can stay with the Alabama team for the rest of the season. When asked about it on Saturday night, Bediako put the question aside but his answer revealed that he does not want it to end after one game.

“My focus in this next game is to improve with the team,” said Bediako.

If he succeeds Tuesday in finding command, this could be just the beginning of what’s to come in college basketball. The line between professional and college athlete has already blurred to an almost infinite distinction. This year alone we have seen laws that we believed to be clear and impenetrable fall by the wayside.

Similar to Baylor’s Nnaji

First, it was Baylor bringing in James Nnaji, who was drafted 31st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft but never played in the NBA or collegiately. Notably, the NCAA upheld Nnaji’s suspension — it did not do so for Bediako — but it seemed like it was time for the cross.

Nnanji’s return prompted Bediako to consider a return to college basketball after playing for Alabama from 2021-23. Bediako was undrafted in 2023 and never played in the NBA but signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs. That should have prevented the team from coming back — once you’ve cleared eligibility and signed an NBA contract there’s no going back, or so we believe — but he successfully obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) to keep him from playing in a key home game against Tennessee.

Who knows what happens next. Another school somewhere could be even more aggressive in trying to add a former NBA player to its roster. How about trying to convince the NBA 15 man to come back for another year of college basketball and a big NIL payday?

This is the world we live in. The NCAA is apathetic and ruthless in enforcing its rules. Despite strong statements from NCAA president Charlie Baker and vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt, Alabama moved forward undeterred. As long as you can get in front of a friendly local judge, anything is possible these days. If Saturday night is any proof, the fans will love you for it.

“What they’re doing now is exploiting the NCAA and they’re buying courts from other jurisdictions, saying, ‘Well, if that’s the case, we’re going to go down from federal court to state court where we can get a good result,'” said Mitch Gilfillan, a former college basketball coach and now an attorney at Quinn Johnston. “Until Congress takes action, which it doesn’t look like they will, I think you’re going to continue to see a lot of challenges.”

Scott Schneider, a Title IX and employment attorney, calls it “a real structural problem with how the NCAA is organized.” Because of the NCAA’s unincorporated organizational structure, it is technically a citizen of each state that has a member institution. That makes it vulnerable to state courts that may be more friendly to the local university than the national NCAA organization.

Schools look to home court advantage

It was played in Tuscaloosa when Tuscaloosa County judge James Roberts donated at least $100,000 to the Crimson Tide Foundation, according to its website. His wife, defense attorney Mary Turner Roberts, continues to represent former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles who has been charged with manslaughter in the January 2023 shooting of Jamea Harris.

It’s not just the state of Alabama, either.

It could help Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss gain a sixth year of eligibility after being denied by the NCAA and later filing a lawsuit in Lafayette County, Mississippi. It could help Duke in its recently filed lawsuit against quarterback Darian Mensah, as a local judge has already granted a TRO to prevent Mensah from enrolling at another school.

“If they were a corporation or organized differently, this lawsuit was filed against them in Alabama, what they can do at that point is take it to federal court,” Schneider told CBS Sports. “But because they’re a citizen of Alabama, they can’t do that. You see this in the Chambliss case, you see this with (Bediako) in Alabama and you see it over and over again. If I can file a lawsuit in a favorable forum, maybe I’ll get a good result.”

Alabama will learn more on Tuesday but comments like Oats’ “he’s going to help us move forward” certainly show what the school thinks it’s going to be like. It’s not a bad election strategy for local judges to side with a popular university, either.

After the end of the game, fans waited to cheer Bediako as he left to enter the locker room. A group of elementary school fans have handmade signs they want the new Alabama basketball player to sign. In a moment that’s emblematic of where college sports are these days, Bediako was happy to write another autograph that read, “Bama Pay$ Better.”

“Everyone came to support you,” said Bediako. “It felt good to be back, especially with Alabama on my chest.”

To put it mildly, many in the game do not believe that it is very good that Bediako is back and playing. Critics believe that actions like Alabama’s fit with Bediako have left the foundation of college basketball shakier than ever. “We need some people to step up and start taking sides,” Florida coach Todd Golden said earlier this week.

In Tuscaloosa, fans cheered and cheered for its erosion.