As the NCAA moves closer to allowing college athletes and staff to bet on professional sports, Charles Barkley is left to wonder what it’s doing.
The Hall of Fame forward spoke to reporters ahead of the 10th annual Bruce, Barkley, & Basketball Golf Classic, a fundraising event he hosts with now-former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. And while Barkley rarely has nice things to say about the people running the NCAA, he went off on the idea that college athletes could soon be permitted to bet on pro sports.
Charles Barkley spoke with reporters at the Bruce, Barkley and Basketball Golf Classic Monday morning. pic.twitter.com/8XQSwprRBc
— Auburn Tigers | AL.com (@aldotcomTigers) October 13, 2025
“I saw something last week which let me know that we need to do something about the NCAA, where they announced they’re going to let college athletes bet on pro sports,” Barkley said with disgust. “If that’s not the stupidest sh*t. You talk about putting your kids in the kitchen and turning the stove on, when I heard that I said, ‘this has got to be a joke.’
“I mean, these are the people we got running college sports now and we want to know why it’s a sh*t show. Anybody thinks that’s a good idea, should have their head examined. Why would you even do that if you’re the NCAA. Are you serious right now? You think that’s a good idea? Cause we’ve already got issues with kids gambling now when they shouldn’t be gambling. I mean, this is just crazy.”
Last week, the NCAA Division I Administrative Committee voted to approve the change of allowing athletes and staff to bet on pro sports. It still needs to be approved by Division II and III before the change would go into effect Nov. 1. After the decision was reached, Josh Whitman, Illinois athletic director and chair of the NCAA Division I Council said the committee “remains concerned about the risks associated with all forms of sports gambling but ultimately voted to reduce restrictions on student-athletes in this area to better align with their campus peers.”
Student athletes will still be prohibited from betting on college sports, which seems like an obvious rule, but it’s a slippery slope, and one Barkley certainly wouldn’t recommend the NCAA goes down. The decision comes just one month after the NCAA announced findings that two DI basketball student athletes “manipulated their performances” to win bets.
If approved, it’s a stark contrast for the NCAA which has restricted athletes from participating in fantasy sports leagues and even filling out March Madness brackets. And we’d be naïve to assume all student athletes have obliged. Barkley is right for believing giving student athletes the ability to legally wager on pro sports is potential slippery slope, but the NCAA also can’t be ignorant to the proliferation of sports wagering since it was legalized.