Former football player, Tennessee grad representing NCAA in Joey Aguilar, Charles Bediako cases

NCAA attorney Taylor Askew is representing the NCAA in both eligibility cases against Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar and Alabama big man Charles Bediako. However, the preliminary injunction hearing in both cases are currently slated for Feb. 6.

Per Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel, this presents a major issue for Askew. Aguilar’s case will be heard in Knoxville, Tennessee while Bediako’s hearing will be held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on the same day. This means that one of these hearings will have to be rescheduled to accommodate Askew.

According to documents obtained by The Tuscaloosa News, Askew has since requested a delay in the Bediako hearing until Feb. 16-18. For now, the Aguilar hearing is set to proceed as scheduled. However, Sparks reports that it could be moved to one week later on Feb. 13.

Askew, 37, is a University of Tennessee law graduate and a former college football player for Tennessee Tech. However, he’s taken on Tennessee twice for on the NCAA’s behalf in cases involving  Zakai Zeigler and Nico Iamaleava. He currently works for Holland & Knight, a firm in Nashville.

In Bediako’s case, the 23-year-old is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief after the NCAA previously ruled the former NBA G-League player ineligible to return to college basketball last month.

The 7-footer has played in Alabama‘s last three games and is set to appear again in Wednesday night’s game against Texas A&M after a prior presiding judge granted Bediako a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Jan. 20 that deemed him immediately eligible until his case could be heard in court. That same judge extended that TRO an additional 10 days on Jan. 26 due to weather concerns.

In Aguilar’s case, it was revealed that he would sue the NCAA for a sixth season of eligibility. On Wednesday, Aguilar was granted a TRO against the NCAA ahead of his hearing. This came after Aguilar pulled himself out of an extension of the Diego Pavia case alongside 25 other student-athletes.

Aguilar played his fifth season of college football this past season. However, the first two were spent at the junior college level. He played for Diablo Valley Community College in central California before transferring to Appalachian State for his first two seasons of Division I college football.