A week after the NCAA declared him eligible, Baylor\u2019s James Nnaji was doing what most first\u2011time college students do: hunting for furniture, setting up Wi-Fi and figuring out where his classes were on campus. The difference between Nnaji, a 21\u2011year\u2011old from Nigeria by way of Barcelona, and his teammates is that he had already been drafted by an NBA team and played in the NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n
Nnaji, a 7-foot center, was the first in a recent wave of players associated with the NBA attempting to enter college basketball. Former G-League center Charles Bediako played five games for Alabama before a judge denied his preliminary eligibility bid. Former UCLA and Charlotte Hornets guard Amari Bailey, who logged limited NBA playing time, is attempting to facilitate his return to college basketball. <\/p>\n
What once would have automatically disqualified a player from playing in college is now a matter of interpretation and, almost certainly, litigation.<\/p>\n
For more than a century, college basketball has sold a simple idea to the most skilled teenagers: an opportunity to compete on campus before attempting to go professional. But with Nnaji being the first, and so far only one, of the trio to be allowed to play full time in college, the road ahead for elite prospects may run through players with prior professional experience.<\/p>\n
Though many on the outside might see it as an exploitable loophole, multiple experts and attorneys who spoke with Sports Business Journal see situations such as Nnaji\u2019s, Bediako\u2019s and possibly Bailey\u2019s as a natural consequence of NIL dollars colliding with outdated NCAA rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have NBA players at $500,000 and NCAA players making as much as $4 million with NIL, so there\u2019s a real incentive for athletes to push for another year of eligibility. That\u2019s the new battlefront \u2014 figuring out the eligibility guidelines and what\u2019s going to be considered professional or not,\u201d said Ivan Parron, a former NBPA agent who now runs his own sports and entertainment firm, Parron Law. \u201cBecause the NCAA is a slow-moving body that usually only changes under litigation pressure, we\u2019re seeing all of this play out in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding a path through the NCAA rule book<\/p>\n
In October, Gersh Sports\u2019 NBPA agent Deirunas Visockas was sitting in practice with Baylor men\u2019s basketball general manager Jason Smith discussing the team\u2019s injury problems at center. Visockas, who had represented Nnaji through the NBA Draft process, had been looking toward potentially getting him to play in college. He was inspired by other cases, including former G Leaguers Thierry Darlan and Abdullah Ahmed earning their college eligibility. As an agent who represents dozens of international clients, he\u2019d seen former pros from Europe, Asia and elsewhere decide to go to college, some of whom already had started going through the draft process.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thought process was that James is no different than any of these other guys that are getting cleared,\u201d Visockas said. \u201cSo there\u2019s already precedent on similarly situated players getting college eligibility, and that\u2019s why we felt confident James should be no different.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, Visockas had to move quickly. Under NCAA Bylaw 12.1.1, players lose eligibility only if they sign a professional contract, are paid by a pro team or exhaust their eligibility clock. Because Nnaji had been drafted but never signed with an NBA team, never appeared in an NBA game and had spent the past two seasons bouncing between Barcelona and the NBA Summer League while rehabbing a back injury, Visockas and Gersh Sports believed he fit cleanly within that framework.<\/p>\n
The first step was the NCAA Eligibility Center. Working with Baylor officials, Visockas helped assemble documentation showing Nnaji had never signed a professional contract or been paid by an NBA team. At the same time, they were racing another clock: a U.S. travel restriction on Nigerian citizens set to take effect Jan. 1. Baylor could not bring Nnaji to campus until the NCAA formally cleared him, and a delay risked keeping him out of the country altogether.<\/p>\n
Visockas said the clearance came just under the wire. On Dec. 24, the NCAA cleared Nnaji, giving him one week to get to Waco, Texas, before the travel ban kicked in. By the time Nnaji checked into his first game for the Bears against TCU, the pressure of document chasing, eligibility arguments and immigration math was gone. What remained was the on-court reality: a 21-year-old second-round pick, slotted into a college rotation, made possible by a set of rules that had been sitting in the manual for years, waiting for someone such as Visockas to test their limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt absolutely was inevitably going to happen. It just was never challenged because college athletes didn\u2019t have the ability to make money,\u201d said Christine Brown, CEO of law firm Christine Brown & Partners, which provides legal guidance for college athletes and coaches. \u201cThe bylaws haven\u2019t changed. It\u2019s just \u2026 whether or not somebody had a situation by which it was challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others haven\u2019t been as fortunate. Tuscaloosa Circuit Judge Daniel Pruet denied Bediako\u2019s motion for a preliminary injunction due to his prior professional experience as a G League player, which has now made him ineligible to finish his collegiate season. The dividing line between the cases is less about draft status and more about paperwork. Nnaji had been selected by an NBA team and appeared in the Summer League, but never signed an NBA contract or received benefits from an NBA team. By contrast, Bediako had signed to play in the G League, a step which the court viewed as clear professional participation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bediako case was more about law, whereas the Nnaji case is not about law, because it\u2019s consistent with the NCAA\u2019s rules,\u201d said Alan Fertel, partner and chair of sports, arts and entertainment law at Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman.<\/p>\n
The case received so much attention that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey filed an affidavit the week before, arguing against Bediako\u2019s return to college basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cInconsistent application of the NCAA eligibility rules challenged in this case \u2014 through court rulings or otherwise \u2014 fuels disruption in college sports,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPermitting former professional athletes to return to competition creates a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness for current student-athletes who have not pursued a professional sports career.\u201d<\/p>\n
What may read like technicalities on paper has everyone from NBA general managers to sports agencies abuzz about what may come next. Although Bediako failed in his case, agents, administrators and team executives say Nnaji\u2019s path has opened a door that will force everyone to reckon with the new age of blurred amateurism in collegiate sports.<\/p>\n
![\"BROOKLYN,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/HTKPL6SQBZEIHJCPUTGXYZHRTM.jpg\")
Nnaji was selected by Detroit in the 2023 NBA Draft, a move that did not bar his collegiate eligibility because he never signed a professional contract or received compensation. NBAE via Getty Images Turning a one-off case into a repeatable strategy<\/p>\n
The ripple effects extend well beyond a single roster spot in Waco. After Nnaji received clearance, Visockas said he received plenty of congratulatory messages and calls from NBA front office personnel and college coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re excited and happy that players like James, and some of the other high\u2011level prospects coming from overseas or from the G League, are getting a chance to play college basketball, because they get to compare these players apples to apples here in the U.S.,\u201d Visockas said.<\/p>\n
However, others believe league GMs have other reasons to be excited. One NBPA agent said NBA executives are already starting to view this loophole as another roster-building tool. Instead of burning a valuable pick on an older college player they\u2019d have to pay right away, teams can use a late selection on a younger international prospect, hold his rights and let someone else handle the development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to think that there\u2019s a lot of NBA GMs out there that would say, \u2018There\u2019s 60 picks in the NBA Draft. Instead of drafting Player X, who\u2019s been in college for four years, and putting them on a two-way, let\u2019s use the 58th pick on James Nnaji, who\u2019s playing over at Barcelona, and we\u2019ll leave him in Barcelona\u2019s academy. They\u2019ve developed players in the past,\u2019\u201d said one NBPA agent.<\/p>\n
Another NBPA agent said that, while on recent recruiting trips, he\u2019s already telling families and potential clients that this informal draft\u2011and\u2011stash via college setup is likely to become a normal, strategic path.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally just told a college kid and his dad on a recruiting trip last week that this is the route it\u2019s going to go,\u201d the agent said.<\/p>\n
Though many NBPA agents interviewed said they would not personally take on Nnaji, Bediako or Bailey\u2019s cases, with one even saying he would advise the other side to \u201censure that players who had already played professional basketball cannot come back into college basketball,\u201d sports agencies see this as an inevitable business reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaking from a strictly business standpoint, they [Nnaji and Bediako] obviously are both very valuable players,\u201d one NBPA agent said. \u201cIt would be foolish to turn away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Gersh Sports, the agency that led Nnaji\u2019s successful return to college, Visockas said Nnaji\u2019s case isn\u2019t a one-off loophole his agency stumbled into. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve taken big leaps in the college and NIL space in particular, especially because of this infrastructure that we already have as an international agency. We\u2019ve shown that we\u2019re not afraid to be the leaders in this space and we can be the first to do something,\u201d Visockas said. <\/p>\n
Exploring this reality also may become more time sensitive for college programs, as agents and NBA teams see it as a means to gain clients and ensure players are ready for the pros. This is especially true with the NCAA being unlikely to edit or alter its rules for amateurism any time soon, multiple agents and legal experts said.<\/p>\n
The next James Nnaji?<\/p>\n
The combination of NIL compensation, exposure and a clearer understanding of which documentation can preserve eligibility will only encourage more drafted and fully professional players to seek collegiate eligibility.<\/p>\n
Each successful \u2014 and even failed \u2014 case only adds more information to the marketplace. NBA teams will gain another environment in which to evaluate prospects, potentially at the cost of a late draft pick, and agencies will acquire a new service to sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur firm is getting five, six, up to 10 calls a week from athletes who are calling us to say, \u2018Hey, I read this in the news. Is this something that applies to me?\u2019 So, yes. You\u2019ll absolutely see more of this,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
Which means the next James Nnaji is likely already out there. And if the paperwork lines up, they may be headed to a campus near you sooner than anyone realizes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after the NCAA declared him eligible, Baylor\u2019s James Nnaji was doing what most first\u2011time college students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,217,6,12,231,17993,1110],"class_list":["post-607926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-ncaa","tag-portfolio","tag-print"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116085684725031389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607926","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=607926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}