Charles Barkley Has Harsh Words for Auburn Tigers on NIL

Not all former college basketball stars are fans of the current state of college sports when it comes to name, image, and likeness.

NBA TV analyst Charles Barkley can be added to that list. While he’s a fervent supporter of his alma mater, the Auburn Tigers men’s basketball team, he certainly won’t be contributing to their name, image, and likeness funds.

Barkley spoke about his love for Auburn in an appearance on a podcast with Outkick.com, but he balked at the notion of giving money to his college team.

Charles Barkley won't be giving a dime to Auburn in NIL

“I’d do anything for Auburn, within reason,” Barkley said. “But I’m not gonna give Auburn millions of dollars so we can be good in football or basketball. That doesn’t help my life in any capacity. And let me tell you something: Black and broke does not work in any state. Guam, the District of Columbia, and all 50 states. I never want to be poor and Black. That does not work.”

Barkley elaborated that he would prefer to give his money to HBCU programs and support charitable efforts in his hometown—sending funds to those he believes need it.

“I just gave $10 million dollars to HBCU’s, that stuff is way more important to me,” Barkley said. “I just gave a couple of million dollars to ‘Blight‘, in my hometown of Birmingham, to tear down old houses and rebuild houses. That stuff is way more important to me than joining the cesspool that is college athletics. We’re such a sh--ty country, Dan. We’ve ruined college athletics, and I don’t wanna even get in that cesspool.”

That seems to be a consensus opinion, particularly of former college stars who didn’t traverse the NIL landscape and who have watched their college basketball teams get blown up by the season in the transfer portal.

“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?”

Barkley clarified that he’s not opposed to players being paid for NIL, but that there’s no return on investment at all for those giving to multimillion players who may only be there for one season.

Barkley spoke about both the immediate problems and the bigger picture when it comes to asking fans and alumni to donate to NIL funds.

They may not last that long on the field or court. Off it, there are larger causes to give money to than the pockets of star college athletes.