Charles Barkley Loves Auburn, But He's Not Wasting His Own Money On NIL, With NCAA Being A 'Bunch Of Idiots'

If you haven’t been paying attention, the NIL deals we are seeing in college athletics have started to cause friction between schools and the donors who are being asked to give money to help fund the NIL programs. For Charles Barkley, he made it clear on Thursday morning that the return on investment is not good enough for him to waste his own money on. 

What we have seen over the past few months in college athletics has been a free-for-all when it comes to players trying to reset the market from an NIL standpoint. We've got players receiving anywhere between $6-$8 million for a single season of basketball, which just goes to show you how much some are willing to spend to win immediately. 

For NBA legend Charles Barkley, an Auburn alum, it sounds as though he has told the folks at Auburn to stop asking for donations when it comes to the basketball program and putting together a roster to compete for a Final Four. 

Appearing on the Dan Dakich show, Barkley had some pretty strong words about how he chooses to spend his money, and who he would rather donate to, rather than a college athletics program like Auburn. 

"I just gave ten million dollars to HBCU's, that stuff is way more important to me," Charles Barkley noted to Dan Dakich. "I just gave million dollars to ‘Blight’, in my hometown of Brimigham, to rebuild houses. That stuff is way more important to me than joining the cesspool that is college athletics. We're such a shitty country, Dan. We've ruined college athletics, and I don't wanna even get in that cesspool. 

"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 free agents every year? I'm not opposed to players getting paid, I want to make that clear. 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."

While he might have enough money to rebuild an entire community, Barkley is not going to just waste his fortune on a player who is only looking for a payday. 

Obviously, this is not the case for other boosters in college athletics, but if Auburn is not cutting down the nets at the end of the season, it's hard to justify spending that much money to help build a roster. 

Charles Barkley Makes Valid Point About NIL's Return On Investment

The problem that we are seeing right now in college athletics centers around boosters or alumni who have given money in the past finally realizing that it's a poor investment. Some schools have enough big-time donors that are willing to give money to see their team succeed. 

But, the problem is that there will only be one team at the end of the season that will raise a trophy. So, the return on investment is clearly not worth it to some, including Charles Barkley. If we're honest, Barkley does enough for Auburn by being around the program, or finding a way to name-drop the Tigers every chance he gets on ‘Inside The NBA’. 

AUBURN, ALABAMA - MARCH 04: Head coach Bruce Pearl of the Auburn Tigers celebrates with Charles Barkley after defeating the Tennessee Volunteers at Neville Arena on March 04, 2023 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

From a marketing standpoint, Auburn gets free advertisements from one of the most influential people in the sport, and sometimes it comes when college basketball is in their offseason. So, when it comes to giving money to Auburn for a few players that could help them have a chance to make an NCAA Tournament run, it's just a waste of money in his eyes. 

"If I give a guy three or four, six or seven 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. "So, 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. 

"So no, I'm not doing that. I prefer to give it to stuff that's important and significant to me."

Guess what? He's right. 

While there are plenty of high-dollar boosters that are willing to spend a few million dollars a year to help build a roster for their favorite team, it all comes down to how much it's actually worth to a person. 

Clearly, Charles Barkley is not handing over his hard-earned money to a player that might be on campus for a year. And at the end of the day, he might love Auburn, but he doesn't love them enough to waste his own money. 

"Hey, I love Auburn, I do. I'd do anything for Auburn, within reason. 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 in any states. Guam, District of Columbia, all fifty states. I never meant to be poor and black. That does not work."