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Nate Oats addresses concerns on Charles Bediako eligibility case: 'They need to draw a line'

Byington mugby: Alex Byington02/01/26_AlexByington

Charles Bediako gets his day in court on Friday. After two weeks of delays, during which the former NBA G-League player has been eligible to play for Alabama, Bediako’s legal team will finally present the 7-foot center’s argument for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief in his eligibility case against the NCAA.

Still, since Bediako first filed his injunction request in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court on Jan. 20, the debate about professionals invading the collegiate ranks has only been racheted up a notch. Especially after former Charlotte Hornets guard Amari Bailey announced his desire to return to college on Friday, roughly three years after leaving UCLA for the NBA. Bailey is reportedly planning to reach out to college teams about playing next season, should he ultimately be granted eligibility by a judge in much the same way Bediako is seeking in Friday’s injuncton hearing in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court.

“It’s not a stunt,” Bailey told ESPN. “I’m really serious about going back. I just want to improve my game, change the perception of me and just show that I can win.”

But unlike Bediako, who never played above the G-League after going undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft, Bailey was selected No. 41 overall in the second round by the Hornets, for whom he averaged 6.5 minutes per game in 10 NBA contests as a rookie in 2023-24. Of course, Bailey and Bediako’s cases aren’t new.

The trend of former professionals attempting to play college basketball has picked up in the last few years, including late last year with Baylor center James Nnaji, a Nigerian national who played professionally overseas before the Detroit Pistons drafted him No. 31 overall in 2023.

Given that growing trend, Alabama head coach Nate Oats — who has been supportive of Bediako’s case for eligibility — addressed the slippery slope developing in college basketball with regard to the participation of former professionals, be they from the NBA G-League or international players.

“I think everybody should probably be concerned with that. But (the NCAA) need(s) to draw a line, and I think Charles’ people thought the line shouldn’t have been drawn that’s gonna favor all the internationals and not allow the Americans to be able to make the money, and I think that’s kind of where they thought the line should be drawn somewhere else,” Oats said following Sunday’s 100-77 loss at No. 19 Florida, via GatorsOnline’s Zach Abolverdi.

“But some people would argue that Charles has a better case to be eligible than some other guys playing college basketball right now, based on what it is,” Oats continued. “Go way back when and I’m not sure I was necessarily pro any professionals playing. But that’s where we’ve gone down. So if you’re gonna go down and a former player wants to get eligible and a judge rules him eligible, we’re gonna play him.”

Bediako had six points, seven rebounds and four blocks in 24 minutes of action Sunday, his third game since he was granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Jan. 20 that effectively deemed him eligible to collegiately until an injunction hearing could be held. At the root of the Bailey and Bediako cases is the discrepency being made between former European professionals being granted NCAA eligibility, while American-born players that are still within their five-year eligibility window are being ruled ineligible.

“What we have now is Americans at 18, 19 (years old) coming out of high school having to compete with 23-year-old freshmen from Europe,” Oats added. “You can’t play four years of professional basketball, then come over here and our 18, 19-year-old seniors are competing with those guys for scholarships. … But if everybody else has the opportunity to sign these European pros at 22, 23 with four years of eligibility, then I’m not sure what the difference is (with playing G-Leaguers).”