The NCAA's Name, Image, and Likeness setup has no shortage of detractors, but you can once again count NBA and Auburn University legend Charles Barkley among them.
Speaking during an appearance on college football radio show McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Wednesday, Barkley yet again ripped the NCAA's current model as "the stupidest thing I've ever heard" and made clear he simply will not be bankrupting himself to ensure Auburn offers strong athletics.
"We've actually screwed up college athletics, which used to be the greatest thing in the world," Barkley told the hosts. "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. Yeah, I'm not in for that. I've said before, I've given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than any athlete in the history of the school. And the notion that I'm going to come up with a couple million dollars every year so we can be good at basketball and football—that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
He continued: "I've been rich for a long time. I plan to stay that way. But the notion that I'm going to give Auburn millions of dollars every year so we can be good at sports, that's just not going to happen. I'm really proud of what I've given Auburn and I'm going to continue to give them money, but I'm not going to give them millions of dollars every year so we can be good at sports. That's just stupid.
"People will be talking about me behind my back. 'How did that guy go broke? How did he lose all that money?' Because y'all wanted to be good at sports, fool!"
Listen to that below:
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
— McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning (@macandcube) May 14, 2025
Full interview: https://t.co/YZRdWu1OQs pic.twitter.com/8Lz5TBkpn4
This isn't the first time Barkley has sounded off against NIL. The Inside the NBA host said similarly during a recent interview with Dan Dakich, and again at The Tradition golf tournament, which is currently underway in Birmingham. He has even ripped the NCAA as far back as October, when he said the governing body has "nobody to blame but themselves" for the ways in which NIL has changed the game.
So it's safe to say Barkley is not a fan of the way things are right now. Whether that will change, though ... that's a different story.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Charles Barkley Again Rips NIL in College Sports: 'Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard'.
