This paper describes a study of the barycentric interpolation collocation method for the optimal control problem governed by a nonlinear convection-diffusion equation. Using Lagrangian multipliers, we obtain the continuous optimality system which is composed of state equations, adjoint equations and optimality conditions. Then, barycentric interpolation collocation methods are applied to discretize the optimality system and the nonlinear term is treated by Newton's iteration. Furthermore, the corresponding consistency analyses of discrete schemes are demonstrated. Finally, the validity of the proposed schemes is demonstrated through several numerical experiments. Compared with the classical finite difference method, collocation schemes can yield the higher-order accurate solutions with fewer nodes.