Charles Barkley made some waves last week when the Auburn hoops legend revealed that he does not contribute to the NIL funds for the Tigers. On Wednesday, he doubled down on his reasons, though he stands by his overall contributions to Auburn University.
Speaking with “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning,” Barkley said it is “crazy” that college sports are being screwed up in this era. He pinned that assessment on the current NIL model that he believes is unsustainable:
“This is how crazy our country is: We’ve actually screwed up college athletics, which used to be the greatest thing in the world… how do you screw up college sports? I’m not against the players making money, but I think the model they have now is unsustainable, where you have to come up with tens of millions of dollars every year to pay college players,” said Barkley. “Yeah, I’m not in it for that.”
As it relates to his personal investment in Auburn athletics, Barkley believes he has given more money to the school than any other athlete; it just is not used for NIL efforts. He was also critical of the potential return on investment for paying big-time college basketball players for 6 months of school during a different media scrum.
“I’ve said it before, I’ve given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than any athlete in the history of the school,” claimed Barkley. “And the notion that I’m going to come up with a couple million dollars every year so that we can be good at basketball or football, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard… It’s crazy.”
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“At least in football, you get a guy for 3 years if you pay him a lot of money,” Barkley said when comparing football and basketball NIL endeavors. “I’m not sure giving a guy millions of dollars to come to school for 6 months (to play basketball), I don’t see a return on investment, how that benefits anybody.”
Moving forward, Barkley questioned the outlook for college athletics with NIL and the transfer portal allowing some players to play for a new school every season:
“I’m not even sure what the hell is gonna happen with college sports. To be able to go to a different school every year is absurd and crazy,” said Barkley.
Barkley is not the only one with concerns in this era, and it looks like things could get even crazier before real changes are made. As for Barkley, he believes in investing in Auburn, just don’t expect it to come in NIL funds with the current model in play.
Former @AuburnMBB legend,@NBA @NBA Hall of Famer and @NBAonTNT analyst Charles Barkley from @RegionsTrad says EXACTLY what's on his mind when discussing NIL, even for his alma mater @AuburnTigers @WJOX945 Full interview: t.co/YZRdWu1OQs pic.twitter.com/8Lz5TBkpn4
— McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning (@macandcube) May 14, 2025WATCH: Charles Barkley does not like the road college sports is going down.“I’m not even sure what the hell is gonna happen with college sports. To be able to go to a different school every year is crazy.” @LyndenBlake pic.twitter.com/bkR3QGtJls
— OutKick (@Outkick) May 14, 2025Charles Barkley torches ‘absurd, unsustainable’ NIL model Saturday Down South.
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