The era of Name, Image, and Likeness has forced collegiate athletics programs to get creative with the way that they fundraise, and a lot of that has included soliciting donations.

While collectives have asked the common everyday fan to join and pay a monthly fee in order to keep their beloved teams at the forefront, it'd be fair to say the lion's share of these funds come from large donations from wealthy donors.

The Auburn Tigers have several that fit the bill, but one stands out above the others in terms of notoriety to the masses.

Former Auburn basketball legend and sports media mogul Charles Barkley is just as famous at this point for his TV career as his basketball career, both of which have been extremely lucrative.

Barkley has kept his fandom for his beloved Tigers and always been a noted generous donor, however he kept things real when he was asked this week at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham about giving to NIL.

"I’ve given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than any athlete in the history of the school," Barkley interestingly said via McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. "...but the notion that I’m going to come up with a couple million dollars every year so that we can be good at basketball and football, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard."

Barkley dropping the illegal versus legal line is particularly interesting and is essentially him saying he was giving to NIL before NIL was legal, though that is not exactly a shocking revelation based on how departments operated in the pre-NIL era.

The NBA Hall of Famer has been extremely willing to give from his personal finances to help Auburn, however clearly it has grown a little tiresome being asked by fans over and over again.

The Tigers are as well equipped as almost anyone else in the NIL sphere and Barkley is likely going to continue to give, however there comes a point where it's unreasonable for him to be the main driving source of revenue.

If Auburn wants to continue to keep the financial spigot flowing freely, perhaps they need to continue to produce alumni who amass great wealth either in the space of athletics, business, or other fields.

Until they do though, Barkley is probably going to keep being asked to help his school stay near the top of NIL funding lists.