Bluenotes

Long way to go, but still in the race

The 2025-26 Big East Basketball slate is in full swing! The #2 nationally Connecticut Huskies, are leading the pack this season @ 18-1/8-0 currently. Number 25 (Coaches Poll) St Johns is in 2^nd position @ 14-5/7-1, followed by Villanova 15-4/6-2 & lil’ Creighton 12-8/6-3. Recently ranked Seton Hall has dropped to 14-5/4-4 in conference (lost 3 straight) and out of the top 25 polls.

Villanova was also briefly ranked and both (Nova & SH) should return to the polls with continued conference success. Creighton has been consistently inconsistent recently (win 1/lose 1) and will not return to the polls this season unless they win the regular season slate. The Jays can make a big statement in upcoming tilts vs Marquette @FiServe and with Uconn @CHICO. Lose either is survivable, barely – lose both and the Jays title hopes are over.

Butler 12-7/3-5 and DePaul 11-7/3-5 are the bigger surprises thus far in the season, as both were predicted as cellar dwellers. However, most brackets only have 4 BE teams making the NCAA Tourney (SH in/Jays out). 4^th or better and Creighton is in, regardless of record.

NCAA approves uniform patches – new revenue source.

Evidently there are field/court spots for revenue sponsors that have been approved. The uniform spots are now approved and will commence come August 2026. See LSU’s deal (reached last fall-2025). Woodside Energy, an Aussie energy conglomerate, which is investing $17.5 Billion (USD) in Louisiana’s economy. Estimates on these videos guess 8 figure contracts/yr for individual schools. Plus the 2nd video addresses tiering of schools, pushback from eliteist football schools, etc..

It will be interesting to see where the Big East slots in – individual schools with top reputations, the league for tourneys, schools with ‘angel investors’, etc..

Bediako and ‘Bama-Basketball: ‘divorcee’ wants to come home

Aha! The NCAA eligibility dike is again showing it’s wear & tear. Thanks to great lawyers and agents we are again witnessing ‘porosity testing’ of the NCAA rules. And again…the insurgents are winning.

The NCAA has allowed Euro and other foreign professional athletes to come over and partake in the collegiate athletic environment in the U.S.. The flow has risen from a trickle of foreign athletes at majors like Gonzaga, SMC, Illinois, & Creighton, plus other lesser schools, etc.; to a flood in recent years. In the case of NCAA Basketball, the theme was that the athlete had not partaken in U.S. NBA play, as foreign pro leagues were deemed on par with collegiate play.

(Image credit: Walt Handelsman | Copyright 2019 Tribune Content Agency)

Several new sets of rules for collegiate sports have been ginned up and advocated for by proponents in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. However, support, serious debate, and solutions have been sidelined, put off, ignored – as the bulk of the legislative personalities have been too busy ‘kissing the ring’ of the executive branch – to care about such trivial pursuits.

The latest NCAA stopgap measure is basically that recruits/players with foreign professional experience…and now NBA-draftees/G League players, are eligible for entering/returning to the collegiate play “if they have not signed an NBA contract”.

Enter Charles Bediako and his legal team. They cite that Bediako, former-UA player, made a ‘mistake’ in his 2023 early entry into the NBA Draft and selection. Sounds like an ex-wife…divorces her husband & family – only to find out that her market value has significantly diminished (life is hard) – and she wants reconciliation. The NCAA noted that Bediako signed a NBA contract, a two-way contract back in 2023, and denied his request.

Enter 6^th Circuit Court Judge James H Roberts, Jr. The Judge has given a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, suspending any punitive actions. Thus allowing Bediako a 10-day window to join the UA basketball team, pending a Circuit Court ruling on an injunction. Totally legal.

James H. Roberts, Jr. is a judge on the Circuit court in Alabama. He was appointed by Governor Robert Bentley in February 2011. His term expires in 2026. Judge Roberts received his undergraduate degree from The University of South Florida and his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. Before joining the court, Roberts worked as an attorney and a professor of trial advocacy and evidence. Judge Roberts has an exemplary record and is above reproach.

The Tuscaloosa News (jan 21^st/23^rd, 2026), Emilee Smarr, cited Judge Roberts as an UA donor. Again, his previous action is not illegal.

However, should the 6^th Circuit Court decide in Bediako’s favor, it sets a meaningful precedent. Such a move totally undermines the current NCAA position that professional athletes (who have signed a contract) are ineligible to return to play at the collegiate level. Such a decision will further erode the remaining procedural platform the NCAA depends upon to regulate collegiate sports. Is the end near for the NCAA?

Copyright: Copyright 2016 Rob Rogers/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The floodgates will be opened to a deluge of, formerly overly optimistic, maladvised, prior-collegians, who exited their collegiate careers for potential NBA dollars – eager to return to the NIL-era college game; in search of new paydays. Hah!