Charles Barkley does not think the NCAA is ‘screwing these players’

With the FBI’s investigation into college basketball looming over March Madness, the game’s biggest event will be a breeding ground for takes on amateurism, recruiting, ethics, and more. The NCAA Tournament will provide a platform for the loudest and most recognizable voices in the sport to share their opinions and proposals for the NCAA’s future.

One of those voices is Charles Barkley, the former-NBA-star-turned-outspoken-television-analyst who has been in the studio for every NCAA Tournament since 2011. Barkley played three seasons at Auburn, where he was the SEC Player of the Year and led the Tigers to the Dance in 1984.

Speaking to reporters at CBS and Turner’s annual NCAA Tournament media day, he didn’t hold back when addressing the problems with college athletics and how some have proposed to fix them.

While Barkley acknowledged that the status quo is not working, he felt people overlook the value of a college scholarship.

“The NCAA has got some issues,” he said. “But the notion that they’re screwing these players, I hate that.”

To underscore his point, he talked about his friends who have “real jobs” and did not play a Division I sport. Even executives at Turner, he says, still have college debt to pay off, a decade after graduation. Barkley believes a scholarship is a sufficient award for participation in college athletics.

But while many schools’ athletic scholarships have grown to cover the full cost of attendance (food, school supplies, etc.), athletes from low-income families are still at a disadvantage because they don’t have the same opportunities as their classmates to take part-time jobs to help out back home.

Barkley is right that a college scholarship is a huge deal and a college degree will benefit thousands of players, even years after graduation. But that doesn’t help their situations right now — something that might not matter to some players, but certainly does to others.

Meanwhile, coaches and universities make millions because of the work that those very players put in.

Then there are the handful of basketball players each year who are only in college because they feel they have to be. They were NBA-ready out of high school but not yet eligible for the NBA Draft. They spend a year in college earning nothing and using a scholarship they won’t benefit from while they could be earning an NBA paycheck.

Barkley also called out LeBron James, who just last week commented on those players and criticized the NCAA, saying the NBA needed a stronger farm league for players who “don’t want to be a part of that NCAA program.” Barkley seemed to find James’s comments hypocritical.

“One thing about LeBron,” he said, “he has that great commercial about ‘we don’t need more LeBron James’s. We need more kids who go to school and get their education.’ So I don’t understand why he made that commercial if he didn’t believe it.”

While no clear answer has emerged on a realistic way to compensate all college athletes, one compromise that has gained traction is the belief that athletes should be allowed to profit off of the university’s use of their name and likeness — think jersey sales, for example. To Barkley, that causes more problems than it solves. To demonstrate, he used an example of a hypothetical lineman being jealous that the quarterback’s jersey might sell better.

“People are going to buy the running backs’ and the quarterbacks’ jerseys,” he said. “I’m going to be pretty fucking pissed if I’m an offensive lineman, opening up all these holes for him, and I don’t make a dime.”

Here, Barkley is dwelling in a hypothetical — one that even plays out in professional locker rooms nationwide. Not every pro athlete has the same endorsement or apparel deals. The stars, obviously, make more. The stars and the scrubs still find ways to coexist.

Barkley added:

“There’s not an easy fix. I think we try to make it better, but letting guys sell their likeness is only going to benefit a couple people. It’s not going to solve the whole problem.”

While Barkley also conceded that it was an “unsolvable” problem, he says he has tried to do his part to help. Over the last few Final Fours, he said, he has tried to convene a group of players, coaches, and university administrators to sit down and try and work out a solution. That has yet to actually happen.

Barkley’s takes may be flawed, but he’s right to encourage a dialogue from all three viewpoints. It’s not likely that’ll happen at this year’s Final Four, but as the FBI’s investigation continues and the NCAA’s Commission on College Basketball continues its work, change of some sort does seem to be on the horizon ... however far off that may seem.