With the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal, college sports have transformed significantly in recent years. But do former college athletes ponder how their careers might have differed under these new rules? During the pregame show for Saturday night’s NCAA Tournament game between UCLA and Tennessee, Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley engaged in this very discussion, prompted by Ernie Johnson.
“Here are three guys who played college basketball,” he remarked. “Do you ever think now about, ‘Man, if they had NIL and a transfer portal when you were playing,’ do you allow yourself to think on those terms at all?”
Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley discuss whether they ever think about what it would have been like to play in the NIL/transfer portal era. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/dTwWVypiPg
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 23, 2025
Kellogg shared, “I don’t. Yesterday’s a closing door. I don’t live there anymore. So I don’t think about what could have been. The guys that came before me had disadvantages that I didn’t face. I never go there.” In contrast, Smith felt that his decision to attend North Carolina was tied to the tradition of the school and expressed that he probably wouldn’t have entered the transfer portal. “Yesterday’s a door but I look through it every now and then,” he said. “I loved schools with tradition. I wanted to prove to myself at North Carolina that I could play there, and I started as a freshman, which was rare at the time.”
Barkley largely mirrored Kellogg’s sentiments, acknowledging the potential benefits of modern times while also expressing gratitude for their own successful careers. “Obviously, everybody thinks about the money in college and sports,” he stated. “We’re not jealous; we’re happy for these kids. But, man, we’re all so lucky. All three of us had great NBA careers. We made more money than Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell. So you can’t dwell on the past—bless these players, but we did alright.”
Considering that Kellogg played at Ohio State from 1979-1982, Barkley at Auburn from 1981-1984, and Smith at North Carolina from 1983-1987, it’s challenging to apply contemporary rules and perspectives to their experiences. While things might have changed with NIL and a transfer portal—something a time-traveling experience, like in Back to the Future, could illustrate—Barkley maintains a positive outlook. Though some former athletes might feel bitterness about their era, Kellogg, Barkley, and Smith had notably successful college careers and were all drafted among the first eight picks in their respective NBA Drafts. All things considered, Barkley is correct: things turned out quite well.
