NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was on the call for his alma mater Auburn’s men’s basketball game Wednesday against Ole Miss, and he didn’t mince words about the state of college education.
He specifically addressed cost.
Almost unprovoked, Barkley began sharing his opinion about the name, image and likeness (NIL) system in college sports, saying he doesn’t thinks it’s sustainable.
“I think we have to have a talk about college basketball,” he said. “I don’t think the model of NIL is sustainable. Listen, I want all these kids to get whatever they can get. But asking colleges to come up with $20, $30 million a year, especially some of the smaller schools, I don’t think that’s a sustainable model.”
NIL has been a controversial topic, and critics of the system say it creates inequality because bigger schools can outspend smaller ones during the recruitment of top prospects, which Barkley alluded to.
And while Barkley wants the student-athletes to get paid, he thinks the price of tuition at schools around the country is too expensive.
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“I love these kids. I want them to do well. But you got to understand, I try to tell people, most of these kids gotta get a free education, which is by far the most important thing,” Barkley said. “Because one of the great travesties of this country is what we’re charging kids to go to college. We need to find a way to make sure the smaller schools can compete.”
The Education Data Initiative found that college tuition inflation has averaged 3.63% annually from the 2010-11 school year to 2022-23. And the cost of tuition at a public, four-year school or university has increased 36.7% from 2010 to 2023.
In the past, college athletics provided a chance for a free education, mainly at Division I schools and universities with scholarships. But student-athletes making money through NIL has been a decades-long conversation, especially considering the profits institutions make off certain programs that have national appeal.
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