Subscribe
Follow Us
NIL is a major part of college athletics in today's era, and the schools that have the most money are generally doing better than the others. There are a lot of different ways for athletes to obtain NIL money, but one of the biggest is getting donations from wealthy alumni. One wealthy alum that Auburn has is Charles Barkley. He has given a ton of money to the school, but he is not a fan of the idea that he should be donating every single year.
Charles Barkley has been very supportive when it comes to NIL at Auburn, but he isn't going to be someone who donates millions every single year.
“I’ve given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than any athlete in the history of the school,” Barkley said Wednesday on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “And the notion that I’m going to come up with a couple million dollars every year so that we can be good at basketball and football — that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Barkley played college basketball at Auburn from 1981-1984, and then he played in the NBA for 16 years. He has made a lot of money throughout his career, and he doesn't want to lose his wealth worrying about Auburn sports.
“One thing I’m pretty sure of, Black and broke don’t work, in any municipality in the world,” Barkley 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!”
Auburn is in good shape in terms of NIL as it is a big SEC school, but the Tigers aren't going to be getting consistent, big donations from Charles Barkley any time soon. He clearly feels like he has already done his part, and his alma mater being good at football and basketball isn't worth that much money. The basketball team seems to be in good hands as it has had a lot of success in recent years, but the football team could maybe use some extra funds.
