The Crimson Tide will not be penalized by the selection committee for the role of Charles Bediak

The NCAA men’s basketball selection committee will not fine the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team for playing center Charles Bediako during his short period of judicial approval of eligibilityaccording to board chairman Keith Gill.

Bediako appeared in five games after filing a lawsuit against the NCAA on Jan. 20 and receiving a temporary restraining order (TRO) the next day from an Alabama judge. The TRO allowed him to compete against TennesseeMissouri, Florida, Texas A&M and Auburn. Alabama went 3-2 in those contests. However, another judge, Daniel Pruett, later denied Bediak’s request for a preliminary injunction after a Feb. 6 hearing, ending his right.

“Those plays count,” Gill said, per ESPN’s Jeff Borzello. “You have to decide how to count them. The committee will apply our normal player availability process.”

NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt reiterated that eligibility issues are outside the committee’s purview, stressing that it is his responsibility to evaluate teams based on competitive merit and construct a bracket based on that evaluation.

“That’s not the role of the basketball board,” Gavitt said, via Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. “The role is to evaluate these teams from a competitive standpoint and rank and seed accordingly.”

In his five appearances, Bediako averaged 10.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 77.3% from the field. The Ontario native previously earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors in 2022. Before returning to Alabama, he spent three seasons in the NBA G League (2023–26) and, after going undrafted in 2023, signed Exhibit-10 contracts with the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Denver Nuggets.

The court found that his prior professional career weighed heavily on the injunction, noting that he was uniquely positioned as the only professional athlete seeking to return to college basketball. Although currently ineligible, Bediako remains enrolled at the University of Alabama.

The No. 25-ranked Crimson Tide have won two straight games since the ruling, defeating South Carolina 89–75 and No. 20 Arkansas 117–115 in double overtime. Alabama is projected as a No. 4 or No. 5 seed in most BracketMatrik projections. The program has secured top-four seeds in each of the past three tournaments and reached at least the Sweet 16 in each of those seasons. The Kalshi Prediction Market gives the Crimson Tide a 67% chance to advance to the Sweet 16 this year.