Mark Story: Nate Oats' latest controversy reveals the NCAA's glass jaw

LEXINGTON, Ky. — After Tennessee spoiled the return to men’s intercollegiate basketball of NBA G League center Charles Bediako Saturday night by beating his new/old college team, Alabama 79-73, the Volunteers men’s basketball social media team had some fun.

On the UT men’s hoops X account, Tennessee tweeted at the 2023 G League champion Delaware Blue Coats, “You’re next.”

We are living through the most interesting period in the history of American major college sports as the system and those who work in it seek to navigate a needed transformation from an exploitative status quo into a future that will hopefully be fairer to the entertainers — the players — in what is a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry.

The imbroglio that Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats, the University of Alabama administration that has backed him and the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court judge who gave Bediako a temporary restraining order that allowed him to play for the Tide vs. Tennessee have created is fascinating.

Anyone who regularly comes to this space knows I tend to come down on the side of college athletes and against heavy-handed attempts to prop up an outmoded college sports system that has long restricted their economic rights.

In the Bediako case, however, the NCAA would potentially have a winning argument if only the college sports governing body and its constituent universities could make themselves “be real” about the enterprise they are running.

As we see over and over and over, accepting the institution of big-time college sports for what it truly is remains stunningly difficult for many within the NCAA athletics power structure to do.

Oats said it was the NCAA declaring 2023 NBA draft pick James Nnaji eligible to play for Baylor this season that put the idea of a reconciliation with the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Bediako, who first played for Bama from 2021 through 2023, in his mind.

The Alabama coach points out that there has been in recent years an influx of Europeans, who by American standards have been considered professional basketball players, into men’s college hoops.

Why is it OK, Oats asks, for former European pros to play American college hoops but not for former American pros? (Complicating Oats “America First” argument is the fact that Bediako is from Canada, not the United States.)

The difference between the cases of Bediako and the 7-foot, 250-pound Nnaji is that the latter, a Nigeria native, never signed an NBA contract even though he was the No. 31 pick in the 2023 draft.

Bediako, conversely, has signed Exhibit 10 contracts — a one-year, non-guaranteed NBA minimum salary deal that allows teams to invite players to training camp without using cap space — with at least two NBA teams and a two-way NBA contract with one team.

Unlike Nnaji, who began his college career Jan. 3, when he first played for Baylor, Bediako is returning to college hoops after making the decision to leave his name in the NBA draft past the withdrawal deadline after his sophomore season (2022-23).

By rule, such decisions have long ended one’s college eligibility. No matter how much Oats and his team need frontcourt help, it’s hard to see much rationale for why Bediako deserves a “do over” from the consequences of his own decision.

Meanwhile, the complaints about the European pros are somewhat disingenuous. Unlike in the U.S., there is not, as a rule, a system of interscholastic sports in Europe. So as young teens, promising European basketball players have to align themselves with the developmental arms of pro teams.

While that might technically make them pros, most of the Europeans coming to college basketball in recent years are making the move because, in the NIL era, they can make far more money playing college hoops here than what they have been making as European pros.

On Tuesday, Bediako’s case was scheduled to be back in court for an injunction hearing that will determine whether his renewed college eligibility persists moving forward. However, Judge James H. Roberts Jr. on Monday extended the temporary restraining order that allowed Bediako to play vs. UT for another 10 days due to travel issues impacting the NCAA’s attorney.

Even in a case such as Bediako’s, when the NCAA’s arguments should have considerable merit, the college sports governing body has a lousy track record when drawn into local courts. Judges, shockingly, seem to lack incentive to rule against the home team.

The solution to that would be to collectively bargain an agreement with college athletes.

Negotiate a fair standard — you have five years to play college sports from the time of your high school graduation; once you leave your name in a professional sports draft past an agreed-upon withdrawal date, that decision is final — that would stand up to legal scrutiny because a representative arm of college athletes had agreed to it.

Alas, for that to happen, the powers that be in college sports would have to acknowledge the players as a partner in their lucrative business endeavor and act accordingly.

As an industry, college sports continually refuses to accept the true nature of what its enterprise has become. Ultimately, it is that reality that allows Nate Oats to bring on a pro basketball player to fill his team’s void at center.

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