NIL - and the courts - are contributing to this trend
Some TOC readers have used the comment sections of recent articles to pursue the discussion of professional basketball players taking advantage of the opportunity to return to college mid-season. Additionally, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has not hesitated to speak out against this developing trend. So, we thought we would try our best to cover this in a little more detail here.
So far, at least three former pros, or athletes that signed professional basketball contracts, have returned to the college ranks in the middle of this season. There are additional former professional players that enrolled in college prior to the start of the season but the mid-year enrollees are:
James Nnaji – Baylor. Nnaji was a long-term player in FC Barcelona’s youth system and signed a pro contract with their senior team in 2022. He was the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA draft but has never played in an NBA game. He has, however, played professionally in Europe before deciding to come to Baylor in December.
London Johnson – Louisville. Johnson played three years in the NBA G-League but was activated at Louisville earlier this month.
Charles Bediako – Alabama. Bediako played at Alabama in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons. He declared for the 2023 NBA draft but wasn’t selected. Since then Bediako has played in the G-League and signed multiple NBA two-way contracts.
Despite this, Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Jim Roberts granted a temporary restraining order on January 21 allowing Bediako to immediately play for the Crimson Tide. A hearing is scheduled for January 27 to determine if Bediako will remain eligible for the rest of the season.
There is also this nugget: according to AL.com’s Michael Casagrande, Roberts is listed as an Alabama athletics donor on The Crimson Tide Foundation website where he and his wife are credited with lifetime donations between $100,000 and $249,999.
Prior to the judge’s ruling, the NCAA had treated international pros like Nnaji and players who signed NBA/G-League contracts differently but the Tuscaloosa court ruled that this was an arbitrary distinction.
The Bediako case is the most recent and Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats and Athletic Director Greg Byrne have weighed in on the situation.
“We are planning to play him. He’s eligible to play. We’re going to follow the court orders,” Oats said. “Since the NCAA has already allowed professionals to play… you tell me how I’m supposed to not support Charles and the team when he’s been told he’s able to play.”
Byrne added his perspective:
“There are many programs across the country with former G League and EuroLeague players on their rosters who have been deemed eligible. At the end of the day, these are men with professional basketball experience that are now playing in college. The distinctions between those cases and Charles’ situation are without real differences. A professional contract should be a professional contract. Why should a student-athlete who earned millions competing professionally overseas be eligible to return to college, while someone earning $50K annually in the NBA G League is not? Similarly, an athlete who leaves high school for professional basketball returning to college later is okay, while a student who entered the draft during college, perhaps based on incomplete or poor advice, may be barred. These distinctions are impossible to explain, undermine confidence in the system and do not meaningfully advance the educational mission of college athletics.”
While not explicitly stated in any of this is the reason players are seeking to return to college or enroll in college after having played professionally. The obvious inference is money. Revenue sharing and NIL now offer tremendous opportunities for some collegiate athletes.
For full disclosure, I have argued that athletes who contribute to revenue generation for their schools should be allowed to share in that revenue beyond the value of a scholarship. But, foolishly perhaps, I didn’t envision it getting to this point. To his credit, O predicted that allowing players to be paid beyond a scholarship would ruin college sports. And here we are.
Any ability the NCAA may have possessed in enforcing eligibility rules is being challenged in the courtroom. The Bediako case is just one recent example. In response, the NCAA has come up with a College Sports Commission (CSC) Participation Agreement.
The basic premise is that, while courts have ruled that the NCAA’s bylaws often violate antitrust or labor laws, a university that voluntarily signs a private contract (the Participation Agreement) is agreeing to follow specific rules in exchange for the privilege of being able to compete.
Additionally, there is a no-sue clause in the agreement where schools – and their athletes through scholarship agreements – agree to resolve disputes through private arbitration and not by going to court.
So, has anyone signed the participation agreement? It’s unclear, but it appears that the current answer might be no. And, if only one or two schools sign then it won’t mean anything. It would seemingly take a majority of Power 4 conference schools signing – simultaneously – for this type of agreement to carry any weight.
It will be interesting to see if enough schools ultimately decide they can stomach such an agreement. Right now, it seems like there is tremendous motivation – and perhaps incentive – to raise as much NIL money as possible, buy the best players you can, and try to win a championship. And if you don’t get your way, just find a judge to agree with you.
For his part, Connecticut Athletic Director David Benedict has spoken up in favor of the participation agreement. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Benedict has also implored the NCAA and president Charlie Baker to take a stand in eligibility cases where there’s NCAA rules being circumvented by a judge’s ruling:
“If legally we can’t control or impose NCAA rules in terms of who can play and who can’t, based on a legal decision, the NCAA still has the right to determine what games count toward the NCAA tournament. And what games don’t count.
“The NCAA has deemed (Charles Bediako) ineligible. Fine, he can play (on a judge’s ruling). It doesn’t mean the games need to count toward the NCAA tournament. Otherwise, throw away the rule book and set it on fire. There are no rules.”
So, again, here we are. We are either:
- Waiting on athletic departments to sign an agreement to play by the rules, or
- The NCAA to take decisive action on something knowing that, without #1 happening, they’ll be sued when they do.
Is anyone here optimistic that either of these things will happen? Or, are we looking forward to Cassius Winston suiting up for the Spartans again?
Additional Sources
Category: General Sports
