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Kentucky’s Dillingham in March Madness as Ex-OTE Mates Sue NCAA

michael mccann
·4 min read

When the No. 3 seed Kentucky Wildcats play the No. 14 seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies at 7:10 p.m. ET Thursday in the opening round of March Madness’ South Regional, a guard with past ties to a pro league will play a starring role for John Calipari’s squad.

Freshman Rob Dillingham, who previously played for basketball academy Overtime Elite and is a projected lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, has emerged as one of the Wildcats’ best players. Recently named the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year, Dillingham averaged 15.4 points, 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds a game while shooting 48.2% from the field and 44.9% from behind the arc.

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Dillingham is also frequently mentioned in federal court documents for a case in which he isn’t a party but is nonetheless a central figure.

Dillingham’s former OTE league mates and twin brothers Matt and Ryan Bewley are suing the NCAA in an Illinois federal district court on antitrust law and NIL grounds. The NCAA deemed the brothers ineligible to play at Chicago State University in the 2023-24 season.

As the NCAA sees it, the brothers violated rules regarding amateur status, competition with professionals and contracts and compensation. Each was reportedly paid about $100,000 to play in OTE, a league for high school players that offers coaching, training, one-on-one tutoring and other athletic and educational benefits.

The Bewley twins acknowledge they were paid but argue it’s hypocritical for the NCAA to allow Dillingham—whom the brothers insist received “comparable” compensation from OTE—to play but not them. The brothers raise the same basic point about Stanford freshman guard Kanaan Carlyle, who like the Bewleys and Dillingham, played in OTE prior to college.

To date, the brothers’ argument has missed the rim. While the NCAA has been on a losing streak in court for about a decade, the association has thus far prevailed in Bewley v. NCAA.

In January, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman denied the brothers’ motions for reconsideration and a preliminary injunction that would have allowed them to play. While the brothers depict their OTE compensation as embodying the league paying to use their NIL, Gettleman and the NCAA regard it in a different light: a wage to play basketball. Players who play in exchange for compensation that exceeds actual and necessary expenses to attend college are ineligible under NCAA rules. The judge sees that approach as compatible with antitrust and NIL laws.

The NCAA insists its application of eligibility rules is consistent with respect to all four players. The association highlights how in 2022, OTE changed its model to offer athletes what was termed a “scholarship option” in lieu of a “salary.” This change reflected OTE responding to the NCAA’s evolving attempts to authorize NIL while trying to distinguish it from pay-for-play. Faced with state NIL statutes set to go into effect on July 1, 2021, the NCAA acquiesced and adopted an interim NIL policy on June 30, 2021. The policy permitted college athletes to use a right they already had—the right of publicity—without running afoul of NCAA rules.

Dillingham and Carlyle signed with OTE to play in 2022, and the NCAA deemed their arrangements compatible with NCAA rules. The Bewley brothers, in contrast, joined OTE in 2021 and signed contracts that looked like employment deals.

“During the course and scope of employment,” each brothers’ contract reads, “the Player shall perform work, duties and services at the direction of the Company and pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Agreement.” Gettleman found persuasive the NCAA’s argument that the brothers’ OTE contracts were “so clearly an employment contract with a professional league” and were “much more than just an NIL contract.”

The brothers’ litigation continues. Should the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit eventually review and rule on the case, the court might regard the shift in OTE contracts as more form than substance. From that vantage point, the Bewley brothers, like Dillingham and Carlyle, arguably should be able to play college hoops.

In the meantime, Dillingham will finish the season with Kentucky and, should he declare for the 2024 draft, play in the NBA this fall. Carlyle, who averaged 11.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists for Stanford in 2023-24, is currently in the transfer portal. Stanford men’s basketball finished the season 14-18 and the school fired head coach Jerod Haase. Stanford women’s basketball, however, finished first in the Pac-12 and will play as a No. 2 seed Friday against No. 15 Norfolk State.

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