Exclusive | Matt Barnes sounds off on college sports: ‘I don’t like 25-year-olds playing with teenagers’

Matt Barnes was once an All-American in football and basketball at nearby Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California. He was recruited heavily by several colleges, ultimately deciding to stay close to home and play basketball at UCLA before he was drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2002 NBA Draft. 

Over the past two decades, Barnes has watched college athletics transform from a developmental stepping stone into something resembling the Wild West where rules are merely arbitrary. Barnes believes there needs to be a new sheriff in town. 

Or at the very least, an age limit. 

Speaking exclusively with the California Post, Barnes, now the co-host of the popular “All the Smoke” podcast, weighed in on the growing controversy surrounding former professional athletes finding legal avenues back into college sports. 

“Outside of even NIL and the portal, I just don’t like 25-, 26- and 27-year-olds playing with teenagers. You know what I mean?” Barnes said. “I think college is supposed to be a pit stop for development and, obviously, getting your education, but also a pit stop for guys who are good enough to go to the next level.

“So I think there needs to be a hard cap on age. The transfer portal is crazy.”

Barnes’ comments come as the line separating amateur and professional athletics has become increasingly blurred.

Last week, 16 former college football players received a temporary restraining order from a Louisiana court allowing them to pursue a fifth season of eligibility. Some had already entered the NFL Draft, signed with teams and participated in NFL training camps before being waived.

The development was strange enough that Rams coach Sean McVay joked Tuesday, “I feel like I took a freaking gummy,” while trying to comprehend players potentially going from an NFL locker room back to a college campus.

The Big Ten responded Tuesday by unanimously adopting a rule barring football players who signed professional contracts, appeared on professional rosters or declared for the NFL Draft as underclassmen without withdrawing from returning to play at conference schools.

College basketball has encountered similar questions, with players such as Charles Bediako, James Nnaji and RJ Luis pursuing paths back to college after professional experience.

For Barnes, 46, the issue is personal as much as philosophical. His 17-year-old twin sons, Carter and Isaiah, are entering their senior seasons at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino as highly regarded college basketball recruits.

Barnes supports NIL and players finally sharing in the enormous money generated by college athletics.

But getting paid and getting younger apparently don’t have to be the same thing.

If college sports is supposed to develop the next generation, Barnes believes there eventually has to be a point when the previous generation stops coming back.

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