The NCAA and its eligibility rules have been at center stage in the news cycle in recent weeks amid a controversial situation involving the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball program and Charles Bediako.

After Bediako had his injunction request denied and deemed no longer eligible to play for Alabama last week, many have wondered about the future of college athletics, and ESPN college basketball personality Jay Bilas — who is also a licensed attorney — weighed in during an appearance on “Pardon the Interruption” and did not mince words when asked about the ruling.

“I think we have an issue where the NCAA does not have any eligibility rules that are based on principle,” Bilas said.

“There’s no age limit in college sports…we have similarly situated players that are treated differently. You have international players that never matriculated to college but have played pro basketball and made a lot of money. And they’re eligible. And you have players international in nature that didn’t go through college and went through the draft, and the NCAA deems them eligible.

I don’t see a lot of difference between Charles Bediako and those players except for the fact that he went to school. I have a little bit of a problem with the way this has been handled, certainly with the way it’s been criticized. Charles Bediako didn’t do anything wrong, he just wanted to go to school and play ball, and I’m not sure Alabama did anything wrong.”

Bilas went on to say that singling out Bediako as a “villain” in this case when there have been so many exceptions is wrong and should not have been the case.

Bediako is not going to return to Alabama this season, but it is nice to hear at least one major media personality has his back in Bilas.