Charles Barkley Offers Strong Thoughts on State of NIL, Calls NCAA 'Idiots'

The television icon and former Auburn and NBA legend didn't hold back when asked about the current state of things.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

When it comes to the day-to-day of college athletics and the state things are currently in surrounding the craziness of Name, Image, and Likeness as well as the transfer portal, most are in agreement that they are not happy.

But media broadcasting legend and former Auburn and NBA great Charles Barkley did not hold back when he was asked about the situation surrounding the NCAA and how they have handled the changing and ever-evolving era of NIL.

"They have nobody to blame but themselves,” Barkley said of the NCAA to reporters ahead of his annual charity golf event with Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl. “When they were suspending guys for getting peanut butter instead of butter on their bagels and suspending guys for more getting than one pair of shoes and suspending guys for selling their bowl jerseys. They’re just idiots. They’re the reason we’re in this situation right now."

Barkley talked about the obvious fact that NIL has become a bidding war for players, something he is not a fan of. But he also pointed out that while clearly collegiate sports are moving to a pro-like pay-for-play model, unlike the professional ranks there is no salary cap in college and schools are essentially able to offer whatever they want to young athletes with no guardrails in place.

"College sports is the only league in the world that doesn’t have a salary cap," he said. "That lets you know how s****y this situation is...Every league and every sport has a salary cap except college sports. That’s an unsustainable model to ask rich people, or your fanbase, to pony up millions of dollars every year."

Collectives as much as ever are asking their fans to pony up hard-earned money to go towards NIL purposes, something Barkley clearly finds to be ridiculous. A pay-for-play model is already here, just not officially, and asking fans to help fund athletic departments that are making as much revenue as they ever have feels incredibly foolish.

Barkley has made large donations to Auburn's NIL collective and donated specifically to the women's basketball team in order to help ensure that they see their fair share in this era where the profitability for players is as high as its ever been. As one of the more seemingly level-headed people in the media, Barkley always tells it how it is and shoots straight.

When he says something is broken, it probably is broken.