{"id":567255,"date":"2026-01-28T22:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567255\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T22:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:54:15","slug":"judge-an-alabama-donor-recuses-himself-from-charles-bediakos-eligibility-case-against-the-ncaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567255\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge, an Alabama donor, recuses himself from Charles Bediako’s eligibility case against the NCAA"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. \u2014 The judge in Alabama center Charles Bediako\u2019s eligibility lawsuit against the NCAA has recused himself from the case. <\/p>\n

Tuscaloosa Circuit Court Judge James Roberts filed the order Wednesday, according to court documents. AL.com first reported Roberts’ recusal.<\/p>\n

The case was reassigned to Judge Daniel Pruet, an Alabama graduate who is overseeing the murder case involving former Crimson Tide player Darius Miles.<\/p>\n

The NCAA filed a motion for recusal Tuesday, noting Roberts\u2019 donations to the university as well as public perception that his relationship with Alabama athletics could alter his judgment in the case. Roberts was listed as a donor on the Crimson Tide Foundation\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourts in Alabama and beyond have widely recognized that a mere appearance of partiality is sufficient to require the recusal of a trial judge,\u201d the NCAA wrote. \u201cThis appearance can be compounded by widespread media and public scrutiny questioning the trial court\u2019s impartiality. Despite the NCAA\u2019s confidence that the Court can disregard his connections to the University of Alabama and its athletics programs, recusal is still necessary to protect these proceedings from an appearance of impropriety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bediako\u2019s attorneys did not oppose the motion.<\/p>\n

Bediako is suing the NCAA in an attempt to regain college eligibility despite leaving school and entering the 2023 NBA draft. He went undrafted but signed a two-way NBA contract and played the past three seasons in the G League. Roberts granted a temporary restraining order last week that allows Bediako to play for the Crimson Tide, at least until a hearing on an injunction can be held.<\/p>\n

\"Alabama<\/p>\n

Alabama center Charles Bediako (14) shoots and scores past Missouri center Shawn Phillips Jr. (15) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Credit: AP\/Vasha Hunt<\/p>\n

No. 23 Alabama plays at No. 19 Florida on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The NCAA and several college coaches, including Florida’s Todd Golden, have strongly opposed Bediako\u2019s return to college basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TUSCALOOSA, Ala. \u2014 The judge in Alabama center Charles Bediako\u2019s eligibility lawsuit against the NCAA has recused himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,319,217,231,772,1544,2148],"class_list":{"0":"post-567255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115975190218342410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}