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Charles Barkley is not a fan of the NCAA’s management of NIL and the transfer portal.
Barkley, 62, didn’t mince words when talking about the current state of college basketball.
“The NCAA, they’re a bunch of idiots and fools. They have ruined the sport. I don’t know how you put the toothpaste back into the tube,” Barkley said during a recent appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.”
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College basketball analyst Charles Barkley on air before the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four championship game. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Barkley isn’t opposed to college players getting paid, but has trouble making sense as to how much money players are making, and how frequently players can now switch schools.
“This notion that you have to come up with tens of millions of dollars to pay kids to play basketball, and have them be free agents every year and transfer to another school and get more money every year. Like, we don’t even get to do that in the NBA. Can you imagine if players in the NBA got to be a free agent every year? I’m not opposed to players getting paid, I want to make that clear,” Barkley said.
“But, this notion we gotta give college kids tens of millions of dollars a year, and basketball is the worst, because you’re only gonna get a great player for six months. I don’t even see how you’re gonna get the return on investment.”
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Jan. 21, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix Suns former player Charles Barkley in attendance at Footprint Center. (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
Barkley was asked whether he would ever donate to his alma mater, Auburn, to help its NIL fund, but the Basketball Hall of Famer would rather donate his money to more important causes.
“I just gave 10 million dollars to HBCU’s, that stuff is way more important to me. I just gave a couple million dollars to ‘Blight’, in my hometown of Birmingham, to rebuild houses,” Barkley said.
“That stuff is way more important to me than joining the cesspool that is college athletics. We’re such a s—– country, Dan. We have ruined college athletics, and I don’t wanna even get in that cesspool.”
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Former basketball player Charles Barkley for the Auburn Tigers after their game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neville Arena on March 4, 2023, in Auburn, Alabama. (Michael Chang/Getty Images)
If even the 11-time All-Star were to give money to Auburn’s NIL fund, he isn’t sure how he would get his return on investment.
“If I give a guy three or four, five, seven, some guys are getting six, seven, eight million dollars, I’m not sure how I get my return on investment if he’s only going to be at my college for one year, and you’re probably not going to win the championship,” Barkley said.
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