Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Just because a local judge says you can doesn’t mean you should.
Just because Alabama can play prodigal son Charles Bediako in Saturday’s big SEC home game against Tennessee and its imposing front line, which includes true freshman DeWayne Brown II from Hoover High, doesn’t mean Alabama should.
It should not. Here’s why.
There is still a line between college and professional basketball, between college and professional sports in general. That line may be thinner than ever, thinner even than Taylor Bol Bowen standing sideways, but it still exists despite the best efforts of agents and judges to erase it and the inability of the NCAA and Congress to protect it.
College sports are still tethered to colleges and universities. College athletes are still required to take college classes, though the location and rigor of those classes can vary wildly. Ask Carson Beck.
Labaron Philon is a college athlete. LeBron James is not. Both get paid to play basketball, within the rules, but a lot of us understand and appreciate the distinction.
You would think the people on the college side of this dividing line, from Alabama coach Nate Oats to AD Greg Byrne to President Peter Mohler to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, would do everything in their power to hold the line. To protect college sports. To teach their athletes that rules exist for a reason and career decisions have consequences.
About that. While we still don’t know for sure as of this writing what Alabama plans to do Saturday, a statement Wednesday from the university suggested that UA has chosen “can” over “should.”
The statement: “The University of Alabama supports Charles and his ongoing efforts to be reinstated for competition while he works to complete his degree.”
Nasty work there in that final phrase, positioning the decision as, at least in part, an academic consideration. Who could argue with a university standing behind a student’s right to go back to school to earn his degree?
Of course, nothing has prevented Bediako from doing that. He’s enrolled in classes at Alabama this semester. That’s a good thing. If he happens to stand 7-feet tall, weigh 225 pounds and own experience as a premier rim protector, well, the basketball team does have room on the roster and a need for an enforcer in the paint.
What’s the harm if he plays his final semester of college basketball, coming in just under the wire of the NCAA’s existing five-year eligibility clock, while working toward his degree?
Ask Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, Florida’s Todd Golden, Auburn’s Steven Pearl and the other coaches that may have to play Alabama with Bediako. That would be a far more difficult task than the one encountered by the five SEC teams that have faced the Crimson Tide without him.
But this conundrum resonates beyond the scoreboard. The NCAA denied Alabama’s request to reinstate Bediako, three years after his last college game for the Crimson Tide, so he sued the NCAA. A Tuscaloosa judge granted him a temporary restraining order, making him legally eligible to play Saturday.
The actual decision on whether to put him on the court belongs to Alabama. Shouldn’t the university be in the business of following the NCAA rules as written or working to change them within the system? There is a rule that states, if you declare for the NBA draft as an early entrant and stay in the draft pool beyond the deadline to withdraw – as Bediako did in 2023 – you forfeit your remaining college eligibility.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t get drafted. Bediako didn’t.
Another rule was emphasized recently by NCAA President Charlie Baker. If you sign an NBA contract – Bediako signed several of the Exhibit 10 and two-way variety – you forfeit any remaining college eligibility. It doesn’t matter if you don’t play in a single NBA game. Bediako hasn’t.
Rules are rules. Or were.
Granted, the NCAA’s enforcement of its eligibility rules has been, as Bediako’s lawyer noted, “arbitrary and inconsistent.” As are the rules themselves. You can play professionally overseas, as Auburn’s Filip Jovic, Texas A&M’s Ruben Dominguez and many others have done, and slide right onto an SEC roster.
You can get selected in the NBA draft, never sign an NBA contract or play for an NBA team, play professionally in the G League and then play college basketball for the first time, as James Nnaji is doing this season at Baylor, though not with much impact. His case differs from Bediako’s on a number of key points, but it does lend credence to the “arbitrary and inconsistent” argument.
A counterargument: When does common sense enter the chat? Who’s looking out for the good of the game?
Last Saturday, Bediako played professional basketball in Birmingham. He played 5 minutes and 49 seconds for the G League’s Motor City Cruise, contributing four points and three rebounds in a 127-103 victory over the Birmingham Squadron at Legacy Arena.
One week later, thanks to a judge’s ruling, he can play college basketball in Tuscaloosa. He can suit up for Alabama in the Crimson Tide’s 19th game of the season three years after his last college game.
In what world does that make sense?
The temporary restraining order, which declares Bediako eligible and Alabama free from NCAA repercussions if he plays, was step one. Next up is a Tuesday court hearing. If he’s granted a preliminary injunction there, he can keep playing, and despite the saber-rattling from the likes of UConn AD David Benedict, Alabama will face no penalties if he does.
Although with Byrne on the selection committee, there could be some spirited closed-door conversations leading up to Selection Sunday.
Which brings us full circle in this latest episode of Dante’s Roundball Inferno. Just because Bediako can play doesn’t mean he should. Just because a lot of other schools would let a player of his caliber play if they had the opportunity doesn’t mean Alabama should.
Just because the starting center from Alabama’s 2023 double SEC championship and Sweet 16 team will make this team much better doesn’t mean the school should put its reputation on the line for a few more wins.
Is that over the top? How about this? Pro ball one week, college ball the next. Don’t like the rules? Sue to get around them. Where does the madness end?
Kevin Scarbinsky is a special contributor to The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, Press-Register and al.com. Follow him on X @kevinscarbinsky, and watch his “Scarbo Knows” podcast on YouTube.
