HOOVER — Days after calling the NCAA “a bunch of idiots and fools,” former Auburn basketball standout Charles Barkley didn’t mince his words Wednesday at the Regions Tradition pro-am. He doubled down.
“College athletics is so (expletive) up right now,” Barkley said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do to fix this thing. The NCAA, they’re just a bunch of idiots. They let it get so out of control. … I don’t know how you put toothpaste back in the tube.”
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Barkley, who has been an avid financial supporter of Auburn and other in-state institutions, was asked about not contributing to his alma mater’s NIL collective, to which clarified what he has already communicated.
“That’s not what I said,” Barkley replied. “There’s nobody, legal or illegal, who’s given more money to Auburn than me. Let’s get that out of the way. There’s not a single person in the world who’s given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than me. But the notion that I’m going to give them millions of dollars a year so Auburn can be good at football and basketball, that’s not going to happen. … Anybody who thinks that is just stupid.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Charles Barkley rips NCAA, sees bleak future for college athletics