Charlie Baker Warns Schools’ Eligibility Lawsuits vs. NCAA Are a Rebuke of the Rules

NCAA president Charlie Baker tells Sports Illustrated Tuesday that schools backing lawsuits against the association to put professional players in uniform are “saying they don’t want to play by the same rules everyone else is.”

“It makes the rules disingenuous, when they aren’t,” Baker says. “The rules are clear here. The lines are drawn. Ninety percent of the membership supports and plays by the rules. It’s a relatively small number of folks who can create a lot of confusion.”

A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled on Friday for Alabama center Charles Bediako, who won a temporary restraining order that has allowed him to play for the Crimson Tide since Jan. 24. Bediako formerly played for Alabama in the 2021–22 and ’22–23 seasons before entering the NBA draft. He went undrafted but signed multiple NBA contracts, and was on a G League roster as recently as mid-January before joining the Alabama team. The Tide are 1–2 with Bediako in the lineup.

Last week, former UCLA player Amari Bailey declared his desire to play next season collegiately, despite having appeared in 10 NBA games in 2023–24. Bailey played one season with the Bruins, in 2022–23, and was drafted in the second round by the Charlotte Hornets.

His five-year window of college eligibility is technically still open through next season, although he is ineligible under the current rules. But Bailey could take the NCAA to court—or, if Bediako wins his preliminary injunction hearing, it could set precedent that clears the way for Bailey.

Baker is acutely aware of the impact one ruling can have on the entire fabric of college athletics.

“I think Amari Bailey is an interesting piece of the picture,” Baker says. “These cases are never about one person. They set precedent for us nationally.”

Baker notes recent comments to USA Today from Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti, who is now alarmed by the impact of the unlimited transfer rules he helped create in college sports. In December 2023, Skrmetti and other state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA that resulted in the eradication of virtually all transfer restrictions for athletes.

The result has been a yearly migration from school to school for many. Skrmetti told USA Today that the current system is “a train wreck” that is “sucking the life out of college sports.”

“I think the portal is probably the single biggest problem that needs to be solved …” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told USA Today Sports. “The portal is just sucking the life out of college sports and putting student-athletes in a bad position. And if there is one change in the immediate future that needs to happen, it’s fixing the portal.”

Skrmetti said his work struck down an “illegal” rule and that it is up to college sports leaders and perhaps Congress to establish a new framework.

In the Bediako case, Baker is concerned that a successful challenge to NCAA rules will further limit opportunities for high school players heading into college. Their playing time could be taken by older pros who find their way back to campus and into uniform.

Despite the NCAA’s opposition to Bediako’s eligibility, the association is not in a position to sanction Alabama for breaking its rules by playing Bediako.

“For a lot of really good reasons, people who lose in court can’t turn around and punish the people who won,” Baker says.

Baker adds that a string of state court rulings that favor a local college sports program are largely at odds with where things have been headed at the federal level in eligibility cases.

“We have to marry those two tracks, the state courts and the federal courts,” he says. “And it’s going to take a while.”

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