{"id":579881,"date":"2026-02-10T13:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/579881\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:03:12","slug":"alabama-center-charles-bediako-denied-eligibility-for-remainder-of-2025-26-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/579881\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama center Charles Bediako denied eligibility for remainder of 2025-26 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. \u2013<\/strong> Tuscaloosa County judge Daniel Pruet denied Alabama center Charles Bediako<\/a><\/strong> an injunction against the NCAA on Monday, meaning he will no longer be allowed to continue playing for the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n

Bediako was deemed ineligible by the NCAA in early January, but was granted a temporary restraining order by judge Jim Roberts after suing the NCAA, allowing him to play until the scheduled hearing. The TRO was granted on Jan. 21 and was later extended, allowing Bediako to play in five games for the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n

Roberts, who granted both the initial TRO and the TRO extension on Jan. 26, recused himself from the case following a motion from the NCAA that cited his status as an Alabama Athletics donor. Pruet took over the case on Jan. 28.<\/p>\n

In Bediako\u2019s five games played for Alabama on his TRO, he averaged 10.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. The Crimson Tide went 3-2 in those games, beating Missouri, Texas A&M and Auburn while losing to Tennessee and Florida.<\/p>\n

Bediako\u2019s case has sparked widespread controversy in the college basketball world due to his recent history as a professional basketball player. He declared for the NBA Draft after his sophomore season at Alabama in 2022-23, going undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft. He spent the last three seasons with three different G League teams, the Austin Spurs, the Grand Rapids Gold, and most recently the Motor City Cruise.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, the system\u2019s clearly broken, and I\u2019m all for figuring out a way to fix it,\u201d Alabama head coach Nate Oats said on Jan. 23 before Bediako\u2019s debut. \u201cBut since the NCAA has already allowed professionals to play and virtually every team we\u2019ve played this year or will play has a former professional player on the roster, you tell me how I\u2019m supposed to tell Charles and the team that we\u2019re not gonna support them when he\u2019s been deemed legally eligible to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Charles is still within his five-year window. He\u2019s 23 years old. He\u2019s pursuing his degree here at Alabama. We\u2019ve got our roster spot open, so this is not taking any opportunities away from a high school recruit or anybody else. Charles shouldn\u2019t be punished for choosing to go the academic route out of high school, rather than the professional route like the international players did.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the day before the hearing, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey filed an affidavit in opposition to Bediako\u2019s pursuit of eligibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cInconsistent application of the NCAA eligibility rules challenged in this case \u2013 through court rulings or otherwise \u2013 fuels disruption in college sports,\u201d Sankey wrote in the filing.<\/p>\n

With the ruling, Bediako\u2019s eligibility is now expired. Alabama\u2019s first game without him will be Wednesday night\u2019s road game against Ole Miss. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CT and will air on SEC Network.<\/p>\n

Not a member, Alabama fans? Join BOL today!<\/p>\n

Have you subscribed to BamaOnLine.com yet? You can sign up for ONE MONTH of premium access to our Alabama coverage for just $11.99! Be able to read all of BOL\u2019s premium articles and nuggets covering Alabama sports and recruiting, and also join thousands of other Crimson Tide fans around the globe on the BOL Round Table message board!\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TUSCALOOSA, Ala. \u2013 Tuscaloosa County judge Daniel Pruet denied Alabama center Charles Bediako an injunction against the NCAA…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":579882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[240222,1718,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-579881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-charles-bediako-21-img-academy","9":"tag-regwall","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116046476461747046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}