The NCAA’s house of cards continues to collapse.
Via Mike Rodak of 247Sports.com, an Alabama judge has granted a temporary restraining order allowing Charles Bediako to immediately play basketball for the University of Alabama.
Bediako, who entered the 2023 NBA draft but was not selected, has signed contracts with the Spur, Nuggets, and Pistons. He played in the NBA’s G League as recently as last week.
The TRO runs through January 27. At that time, a hearing will be held on Bediako’s motion for an injunction pending the resolution of his lawsuit.
“These attempts to sidestep NCAA rules and recruit individuals who have finished their time in college or signed NBA contracts are taking away opportunities from high school students,” the NCAA said in a statement. “A judge ordering the NCAA let a former NBA player take the court Saturday against actual college student-athletes is exactly why Congress must step in and empower college sports to enforce our eligibility rules.”
Putting it another way, it’s exactly why the NCAA’s chronic antitrust violations have yielded to chaos. And it’s why the NCAA continues to want someone else (Congress) to clean up its mess.
If the NCAA and its members want an antitrust exemption that would allow rules that would keep players who have signed professional contracts from using their remaining college eligibility, the best outcome would be to embrace a nationwide union and collectively bargain. But the NCAA and its members don’t want the other things that would go with the antitrust exemption — namely, a comprehensive set of player (worker) rights, won through negotiations and the application of other labor devices, like a strike.
That would create true protections for players, like not letting former NFL players practice against actual college student-athletes. Which Nick Saban did at Alabama.
