AUBURN, Ala. — On a football Saturday, the tailgate scene around Jordan-Hare Stadium spans more than a mile in each direction. Food and drink spreads. Televisions showing other games. Revelry and fellowship. A lot goes into these gamedays, because there aren’t many of them: Six, maybe seven a year at Auburn and most power-conference schools.
So when Auburn announced recently that it was moving one of those precious home games next year — and a good one, against Baylor — to Atlanta, there was an outcry. It was a unique deal, aimed at bringing name, image and likeness dollars to help Auburn procure better players. But Auburn’s mayor protested at the loss of city revenue. A local media member estimated 90 percent of the fan feedback was negative.
David Hightower, sitting in his Auburn tailgate tent before the Georgia game, took a more even-keel approach, saying he thought fans would ultimately go along with it if it makes their team better.
Then he added: “If it makes the team better.”
Auburn fans storm the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium after beating Texas A&M in Nov. 2024. (Michael Chang / Getty Images)
Therein lies the key, and why Auburn made the deal, in which the Peach Bowl committee agreed to directly pay Auburn players in exchange for their marketing of the game. Neither Auburn nor the Peach Bowl has divulged what promised guarantees may exist, but a source briefed on the deal said Auburn players could receive at least $4 million, and more if it’s a sellout.
“It’s not a decision we took lightly. I know it affects a lot of people,” Auburn athletic director John Cohen said. “But I also know recruiting is the lifeblood of any institution, the most important factor in recruiting right now is what type of compensation are student-athletes going to get. I’m not going to run from that, hide from that, sugarcoat it. That’s a critically important factor in 2025.”
The players will do marketing and promotion for the game. David Epps, the chief operating officer of the Peach Bowl, cautioned that guaranteed money is hard to say because the activities have to be cleared by the NIL Go clearinghouse.
“But essentially, yeah, we’re going to use their student-athletes to help us market and promote the Aflac kickoff game and ticket sales and fan activity so we can generate some excitement, enthusiasm around the match-up next year,” Epps said.
The idea sprang from basketball, and the Players Era tournament based in Las Vegas. Eight teams competed last year, with each team’s players guaranteed $1 million for helping promote the event. This year’s event will have 18 teams.
But that was a handful of games out of 30. The Auburn-Baylor deal was yanking a home game away, and the 2026 home schedule isn’t exactly strong: LSU, Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Southern Miss and Middle Tennessee. Not only is it a year where the two main rivalry games — Alabama and Georgia — are on the road, but Auburn only drew four home games in the inaugural year of the SEC nine-game schedule.
Auburn mayor Ron Anders, a day after the Baylor deal was announced, finished a city council meeting by speaking out against it, saying in part:
“I’ve spoken to the athletic director, Mr. John Cohen and President Chris Roberts, and shared my disappointment and concern. Our local business community employs our citizens, they sponsor our youth teams, they donate to our local charities. The taxes they create fill our potholes, support our police officers, purchase our fire trucks, build our parks and improve our roads. I want to thank every business owner who believes in Auburn and makes a daily investment in our city.”
When he finished, another city council member said Anders was “spot-on,” and another said: “Shame on the university,” according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Cohen said he was sympathetic to the mayor’s concerns. He pointed out that it might be offset by a concert series Auburn has created, with four at the basketball arena and one at Jordan-Hare, which will bring five days of visitors to the city.
“You really have to look at this through a different lens,” Cohen said. “The city of Auburn, its businesses, the citizens of this city, are extremely important to us. And we feel like we’ve taken some necessary steps to help our community. But we also have to provide these opportunities for our student-athletes, for us to be competitive and to recruit well.”
Cohen called this necessary because he sees the chase for third-party NIL dollars only continuing. There was some hope that revenue sharing would decrease that, but in a few months, Cohen has already seen enough to know that the NIL of the 2021-25 world is still prevalent.
“I’m not souring on student-athletes getting great opportunities. I think that’s critical. But I wish that opportunity was just more direct with each individual school, and not through third parties,” Cohen said. “I think it’s a much safer, controlled way to handle these things. But I also know we’re dealing with the law, we’re dealing with a court case. It is what it is. Part of what I do for a living is making sure our student-athletes get the best opportunities that we can possibly help provide. And that’s what we’re going to do.”
Auburn only has four home SEC games in 2026. (Michael Chang / Getty Images)
Auburn isn’t the first school to sell a home game. It’s been done sporadically over the years, and Georgia Tech moved this year’s game against Georgia — its biggest of the season — to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in exchange for a $10 million guarantee, which went directly to the school. Georgia Tech is also thinking about moving a nonconference game against Tennessee to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Epps said the Auburn-Baylor deal isn’t necessarily the new normal for these games. They’re having discussions with other schools, as they always do, and some involve traditional payouts, a la Georgia Tech.
“The schools have different motivations for playing a neutral site game over the years, whether it’s recruiting, giving their kids a chance to play in an NFL stadium, there were a lot of reasons,” Epps said. “And this became a new one that we identified and said this could appeal to schools, especially now that everybody’s going to be looking to maximize, obviously, the rev-share side through the athletic department, but they’re going to be looking for ways to continue to build the NIL case for the student-athletes.”
That’s all well and good for Auburn fans, and if they can see that moving the game does make their team better, it will be an easier sell. Given the struggles on the field — Auburn is 3-3, and its 2026 recruiting class is currently ranked 32nd in the nation, 11th in the SEC — anything could help.
But home games are precious. Auburn is offering fans two different season ticket plans for next year: Six games, or seven to include the Baylor game, with those tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis. Mercedes-Benz Stadium seats fewer fans, so that makes it easier.
Hightower, the Auburn tailgater, is a season-ticket holder who wasn’t sure if he would pay extra for the game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He wondered if Baylor fans would rather have visited Auburn’s campus.
“I understand it’s just $5 million in NIL money that they’re getting,” he said. “And in today’s world, that’s not that much at all — if that’s what it is.”
That’s not clear, but it appears to be in the range.
“I see both sides of it,” Hightower said. “We need the NIL money. That part of it is legit. But I understand it hurts the economy here in Auburn. It’s going to take away a lot of money.”
