Former NBA star and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley blasted the NCAA on Sunday night calling the association the “Barney Fife of the world,” for their poor administration and enforcement.
Barkley, who is covering college basketball over at CBS during March Madness, went on the rant following a discussion of the extensive Covid protocols the NCAA is using.
“They do an awful job of administrating,” Barkley said. “We’ve got guys on tape paying players three years ago that they haven’t said anything about … it’s time for them to get their crap together.”
Of course, the flaw in this analogy is that Barney Fife wasn’t pretending to be incompetent, he actually was incompetent. The NCAA, at least as far as its enforcement of recruiting and athlete payment scandals, is merely pretending to be incompetent. The collegiate athletics governing body is absolutely equipped with the brains and the resources necessary to prosecute these cases. They just don’t want to because if they prosecute one, they’ll have to prosecute them all.
Plus, as the NCAA knows better than anyone, there are likely hundreds of prosecutable athlete corruption cases that would come to light if they started kicking over these anthills.
However, good on Barkley for calling it out.