NCAA athletes have wasted no time taking advantage of the new policy allowing them to profit off their name, image and likeness. Charles Barkley is concerned about what it will mean for team chemistry in locker rooms.

Barkley weighed in on NIL during a recent interview with Dan Patrick.

“This notion that ‘wow this is going to be great for college athletics, all these people are going to make a lot of money’, Dan, I don’t believe that,” Barkley told Patrick.

Barkley elaborated that at Auburn athletes like he and Bo Jackson would have done well but he’s not how their teammates would handle that.

“What really bothers me and scares me about the whole scenario, Dan, there’s going to be so much resentment from other teammates,” Barkley said. “They’ll be like, ‘Damn, Charles is selling jerseys. He’s got a car deal. We work just as hard as him.’ Same thing with Bo Jackson. The offensive lineman – he opens up all the holes for Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson is making all this money and the offensive lineman who has to do all the work is not making a dime, I think there’s gonna be great resentment and jealousy on these teams.”

Some players appear to have already considered Barkley’s concerns. Texas A&M standout Ainias Smith notably pledged to give his teammates a percentage of all his NIL deals.