Ben Simmons Calls NCAA ‘F—ed Up,’ Says He Didn’t Need to Attend Class at LSU

In the upcoming Showtime documentary “One & Done,” Ben Simmons calls the NCAA “f—ed up” and explains why he stopped going to class after his first semester at LSU last year because he knew he was headed to the NBA as the likely No. 1 pick.

“The NCAA is really f—-ed up,” Simmons said in “One and Done,” according to ESPN. “Everybody’s making money except the players. We’re the ones waking up early as hell to be the best teams and do everything they want us to do and then the players get nothing. They say education, but if I’m there for a year, I can’t get much education.”

An Australian who grew up with NBA dreams, Simmons famously became ineligible for the Wooden Award last year because he didn’t meet the necessary academic standards. He got the minimum 1.8 GPA necessary to play in the second semester, but not the 2.0 that the Wooden Award required.

In the film, Simmons tells reporters who asked him why he stopped attending class after the first semester, “Well, I can’t get a degree in two semesters, so what’s the point?”