Center Charles Bediako is a former G-League player who is attempting to return to collegiate play after three seasons in a professional league.

Compared to the NBA, college basketball feels like a breath of fresh air. Teams are kept together for years and build a strong bond with each other, while student athletes pursue their education. 

However, the joke of an organization that is the NCAA has decided they have more authority over the power of friendship with one simple possession: cold, hard cash. 

As a disclaimer, I fully believe college players should be paid for the level of basketball they compete at. What I don’t believe in is whatever the NCAA has decided is “best” for the league. 

The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals are a great way for players to be compensated for their talent. However, the college overlords have essentially turned a developmental period in a player’s life and career into a way to pump out more money for themselves while disrupting education. 

Scholarships have been used as bargaining chips to lure players to a school, but the incentive behind NIL deals ends up changing priorities for athletes when planning their future. 

Choosing a college should be based on which program seems the most suitable for a player’s growth and can help further their career whether it ends up being in basketball or a different field. It should not depend on how much money you can squeeze out of a desperate athletic director’s team. 

After rolling back a rule that pushed players from attempting to transfer, the NCAA has given free rein to students to continuously move between whatever college is willing to offer them the most amount of money. While this is extremely similar to how the NBA works in its player deals, I believe that this soils what made college basketball so special. 

A player’s time in college is vital. It acts as a time of development for them to form the mindset of a professional and work on honing their talent.

Watching a scrawny 1-star recruit sprout into a top 10 pick in the NBA draft is one of the most satisfying experiences in the sport. This is the sort of magic that the NCAA is trying to take away.

When I watch my favorite college team, I want to see these players develop with each other and work together to not only win it all in the tournament, but also make it to the NBA and share their bonds. The NCAA is attempting to ruin this through its blatant mishandling of player compensation and transfer rules.

Beyond that, the development of players is in even more immediate danger from the NCAA’s complete incompetence in regulating pro athletes trying to return to college after declaring for the draft early.

I don’t even have to argue my case when it is aired out by legendary coaches who see how this is ruining the collegiate scene. 

Arkansas Razorback Head Coach John Calipari ranted in a post-game press conference in December 2025 about the consequences of the NCAA’s lack of rules pertaining to these “G-League Dropouts”.

“Who other than dumb people like me are going to recruit high school kids? I get so much satisfaction out of coaching young kids and seeing them grow and make it and their family and life changes that I’m going to keep doing it,” Calipari said. “But why would anybody else, if you can get NBA players, G League players, guys that are 28 years old, guys from Europe?”

While Calipari and other coaches continue to make their stance on this issue known, others such as Alabama coach Nate Oats deepen the issue even if it is considered to be legal in the NCAA’s rulebook.

It is completely understandable that sometimes in order to win, you need to bend the rules a bit, but this is not one of those cases. In allowing former G-League player Charles Bediako to join his team, Oats has opened the flood gates to allow more professional players to take away roster spots from high school prospects. 

He set a precedent that this should be normal in the league, even if his words say otherwise. The league may have gotten itself a win in its battle against itself when Bediako was denied eligibility after playing under a temporary restraining order, but there is still a long way to go.

This situation has shown how the NCAA has dug itself a massive hole that it needs to dig itself out of. In its rush to compensate players while trying to add more entertainment value to the league, they ended up creating a watered-down version of the NBA that doesn’t emphasize the value of development. 

It won’t end until this dysfunctional administration can find a way to undo its own stupidity while keeping the integrity of its league together and rightfully paying its players in a way that does not compromise what makes college basketball so special in the first place.

Categories: Sports