October 7, 2025 • 9 mins
Auburn to play Baylor in Atlanta next season to generate NIL revenue.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
So here's what Auburn University is doing next year when
they played Baylor. It's a home game that they have
scheduled with Baylor, and they are going to move it
to the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta as part of
an arrangement with a flat kickoff game. And this is
going to provide nil opportunities for Tigers players, a first
in college football for neutral site games. The Peach Bowl,
(00:26):
in coordination with the a flat game, is going to
provide promotional appearances for Auburn players, promoting ticket sales at
ancillary events. So the athletic director at Auburn is John Cohen,
and he says, anytime we have the ability to advance
Auburn student athletes ability to earn third party nil compensation,
will take that opportunity. The exposure of playing on a
(00:48):
national stage against a power for opponent in one of
the premier neutral site games in the country. Not only
benefits are student athletes financially, but enhances their brands. They
met this year your season opener with the Tigers wonning
thirty eight twenty four in Waco. Next year's game's going
to be scheduled at Auburn as the second game of
(01:09):
a home and home Auburn will get twenty thousand, six
hundred and forty five tickets for the game, while Baylor
received the SEC standard for visiting teams at three thousand
and then the afflat kickoff will sell the rest of
the tickets. Six times that Baylor and Auburn have met
since nineteen fifty four, it's two to two and one
in the series so far.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, I think you pretty much.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Know how I feel about home games. Yeah, I think
home games are vitally important, not only to Auburn as
a university, but to the community of Auburn. There'll be
twenty thousand fans that go to the game in Atlanta.
There may even be some fans that never get to
(01:50):
go to Auburn because they now live in Atlanta or
in Georgia and it's easier for them to go see
their alma mater play. But to me, Saturday in the SEC,
Saturdays in the college football blue blood programs, and Auburn
may not be blue blood, but they're pretty close. They're institutional.
There's something that you just plan your day around. And
(02:14):
what you've done by giving I mean, I can't imagine
how much your students are going to make on this
maybe two or three thousand dollars, and maybe that's enough
for them. And you're only going to do it for
a handful because only your star players have impact. The
third string center doesn't matter when it comes to promoting
this game. No one knows who he is. It's going
to be your star athletes that are going to do
(02:35):
your promos that you're going to pay them for. But
think about the fact that Auburn sells out Jordan Hare
Stadium every Saturday, no matter who they play. Think about
the hotels that may have mandatory two nights days. Think
about all the people who have come there with their
RVs in park in nearby RV parks to come to
the game.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Think about the restaurants that.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Probably make more in one weekend than they do in
ten or fifteen weeks throughout the rest of the year.
And I would bet the six or seven games a
year they play in Auburn, you could tally up the
receipts from that weekend's restaurant to sales Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
and it's more than the other.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Forty five weeks combined.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's how important it is for these SEC schools and
these big time power for programs to have home games
in their communities.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Why can't you get AFLAC to do the game in Auburn.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
If AFLAC wants to do it, a FLAC can still
get the same exposure and the Mercedes Benz Stadium. I'm
sure that they're in the business of trying to sell
neutral site games, so maybe they make a little bit
more money, But I would think that you could get
the partners together to still do this and still call
it a home game. Now, if you get an opportunity
and you're not you know, if you're a if you're
(03:48):
a school that doesn't sell a lot of tickets, if
your home games are not that big of a deal
in terms of attendance and in terms of going to
a destination. Now, I'll just use the American Conference for example,
and I think North Texas is in this. Utsa's in this,
probably Rights is in it. I think if you look
(04:09):
at the schools around the American Conference, there aren't very
many teams where you're going to have an excellent you're
going to have a major number of fans come to
a game that's going to change the community's gross product
for the week. You're going to have twenty five thousand
people likely for UTSA and rights this Saturday. It's homecoming,
(04:31):
so you may get a little bit more than that
or more than normal, but you're not getting people that
are coming here like they would if they were going
to Austin or Ohio State or Michigan or Texas, A
and M.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
We're not there yet.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We're working on that, and fifty years from now hopefully
we're like that. Hopefully this does become a destination thing.
And if somebody offers you ten million dollars to go
play in Ireland, or go play in Dallas, or go
play someplace neutral site, yeah that's some revenue that you
can't get anywhere else at that. But I can't imagine
that Auburn can't make this up some other place with
(05:05):
the prowess that they have in their league and the
history that they have and the tradition that they have.
To me, it might help their players a little bit,
but it is killing your fans and your community with
what you're giving up for that weekend.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
I think that this actually is more of a benefit
to Baylor.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And here's why. Because play in Jordan here, that's number one.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
It's not even that well. I mean obviously that factors
into Auburn sacrificed a home game, which you know, if
you pay all these money for stadiums, why the hell
each you playing there? But Baylor is a team that
and this is and this is the thing about the
Big twelve. We don't have a lot of like really
famous stadiums anymore left. And the time that you can
to play in bigger stams, bigger name staums, whether it's
NFL or whatever, is an opportunity for you.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
In terms of recruiting.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Auburn is going to recruit with the SEC regardless, whereas
Baylor is an no offense to Auburn. They have more
money behind them. They've been able to spend more in Nil.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
McLean Stadium, you know in Baylor is one of the
best college football stadiums there is. It seats about sixty
five thousand. That's all they need there. I mean may
not even seat that many. But it's a cool place
to be on game day. And it's from my perspective,
it's the best. It's the best radio booth that I've
ever been in. And I think I did talliedp since
I've been doing the UTSA games. I think we've been
(06:19):
in fifty six different venues. To me, that's number one.
I love what they did at McLain Stadium.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
In fifty six. Huh, who's fifty six?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I mean Utsa is played in fifty six different venues.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Right, So who's the worst one?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Is what I'm saying FORLIDA International. Oh you had that ready, no,
no question. It's an upside down garbage container.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's what it is, with windows cut out that come
to the inside so you can't close them when it rains,
not if it rains. When it rains, and the visiting
radio or the home radio booth is in the same
container with you separated by a shower curtain, like that's
going to block the noise.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, it's the worst ever FORLID.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Internationals shouldn't even be in in Division one football. They
should be like in Division four because there's only down
to Division three. I have nothing positive to say about
anything athletically at FIU. It's the worst. And there's nobody
that's even in the ballpark clothes. It's there. They're in
their own own little bubble. But Ford International, by far
as the worst venue there.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Is is Auburn not really haven't spending that much in
an Io. I know they've been doing on the trash.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Reportal Well, you know, Auburn is the second school of
choice in Alabama. Alabama's gonna get all the money, Auburn's
gonna get second fiddle, and UA B is gonna get third.
And that's why UAB is not very good in their
conference right now. And it's why Auburn's probably in the
same boat at Arkansas and Mississippi State and Missouri and
those schools are is because they can't spend as much
money as Alabama can on players. But occasionally Auburn, you know,
(07:39):
rises up from the dead and wins the conference or
or has a good showing. But I think all of
those communities in the SEC. You know, I said this earlier.
The reason the Big twelve got eight billion dollars, the
Big ten got eight billion dollars for their contract, and
the SEC gets a little bit less. It's not because
of prowess of the school. It's because of market size.
(08:00):
Look where the big ten schools are, Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, Uh,
you know capital cities in Michigan. Uh, They're they're in
the biggest cities in Iowa. They're in the biggest cities
in Nebraska, the biggest cities in Oregon. They they now
have us the l A market. Penn State and Rutgers
are basically considered the Philadelphia and New York markets. So
(08:21):
they're gonna get a lot of money. But where and
so you're it's kind of hard to tally other than
Penn State. Maybe they're not really in rural areas. I
guess West Lafayette for Purdue has but they haven't been
relevant in football in forever. But if you look at
if you look at the SEC, the biggest market in
the SEC is either Austin or Oklahoma City, depending on
what the county is for that week.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
In Nashville, is that a big market in consideration.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
But Vanderbilt's irrelevant. Usually they're the habits at market size. Yeah,
but the rest are college towns, you know, uh, Lexington, Kentucky,
and in Columbia, South Carolina and Starkville and Oxford and
Tuscaloosa and Auburn and Gainesville. There these cities that rely
on those six or seven Saturdays a year, and that's
(09:06):
why teams always in those leagues try to play all
home games in the non conference season if they can,
because they want that added revenue for their communities. Those
communities thrive on those games, and it's really really hard
to make up that lost revenue when you decide to
have a neutral site game. Alabama, a member would play
Ohio State or somebody in Dallas for a neutral site game,
(09:28):
and it was great, and it's on national TV and
all that, but it's far better if they've played that
game in in Tuscaloosa, Columbus.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I would.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Imagine that if you did a little bit of creative
thinking and some creative marketing, it wouldn't matter where you
play the game. You could come up with some in
I own money for your players. All right, Jerry Jones
gets fined. I don't know exactly what he did, but
I got a pretty good idea. We'll talk about the
baseball playoffs and Jeff Trailer joins us. In thirteen minutes,
it's the Indy average show on the tickets
So here's what Auburn University is doing next year when
they played Baylor. It's a home game that they have
scheduled with Baylor, and they are going to move it
to the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta as part of
an arrangement with a flat kickoff game. And this is
going to provide nil opportunities for Tigers players, a first
in college football for neutral site games. The Peach Bowl,
(00:26):
in coordination with the a flat game, is going to
provide promotional appearances for Auburn players, promoting ticket sales at
ancillary events. So the athletic director at Auburn is John Cohen,
and he says, anytime we have the ability to advance
Auburn student athletes ability to earn third party nil compensation,
will take that opportunity. The exposure of playing on a
(00:48):
national stage against a power for opponent in one of
the premier neutral site games in the country. Not only
benefits are student athletes financially, but enhances their brands. They
met this year your season opener with the Tigers wonning
thirty eight twenty four in Waco. Next year's game's going
to be scheduled at Auburn as the second game of
(01:09):
a home and home Auburn will get twenty thousand, six
hundred and forty five tickets for the game, while Baylor
received the SEC standard for visiting teams at three thousand
and then the afflat kickoff will sell the rest of
the tickets. Six times that Baylor and Auburn have met
since nineteen fifty four, it's two to two and one
in the series so far.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, I think you pretty much.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Know how I feel about home games. Yeah, I think
home games are vitally important, not only to Auburn as
a university, but to the community of Auburn. There'll be
twenty thousand fans that go to the game in Atlanta.
There may even be some fans that never get to
(01:50):
go to Auburn because they now live in Atlanta or
in Georgia and it's easier for them to go see
their alma mater play. But to me, Saturday in the SEC,
Saturdays in the college football blue blood programs, and Auburn
may not be blue blood, but they're pretty close. They're institutional.
There's something that you just plan your day around. And
(02:14):
what you've done by giving I mean, I can't imagine
how much your students are going to make on this
maybe two or three thousand dollars, and maybe that's enough
for them. And you're only going to do it for
a handful because only your star players have impact. The
third string center doesn't matter when it comes to promoting
this game. No one knows who he is. It's going
to be your star athletes that are going to do
(02:35):
your promos that you're going to pay them for. But
think about the fact that Auburn sells out Jordan Hare
Stadium every Saturday, no matter who they play. Think about
the hotels that may have mandatory two nights days. Think
about all the people who have come there with their
RVs in park in nearby RV parks to come to
the game.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Think about the restaurants that.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Probably make more in one weekend than they do in
ten or fifteen weeks throughout the rest of the year.
And I would bet the six or seven games a
year they play in Auburn, you could tally up the
receipts from that weekend's restaurant to sales Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
and it's more than the other.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Forty five weeks combined.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's how important it is for these SEC schools and
these big time power for programs to have home games
in their communities.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Why can't you get AFLAC to do the game in Auburn.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
If AFLAC wants to do it, a FLAC can still
get the same exposure and the Mercedes Benz Stadium. I'm
sure that they're in the business of trying to sell
neutral site games, so maybe they make a little bit
more money, But I would think that you could get
the partners together to still do this and still call
it a home game. Now, if you get an opportunity
and you're not you know, if you're a if you're
(03:48):
a school that doesn't sell a lot of tickets, if
your home games are not that big of a deal
in terms of attendance and in terms of going to
a destination. Now, I'll just use the American Conference for example,
and I think North Texas is in this. Utsa's in this,
probably Rights is in it. I think if you look
(04:09):
at the schools around the American Conference, there aren't very
many teams where you're going to have an excellent you're
going to have a major number of fans come to
a game that's going to change the community's gross product
for the week. You're going to have twenty five thousand
people likely for UTSA and rights this Saturday. It's homecoming,
(04:31):
so you may get a little bit more than that
or more than normal, but you're not getting people that
are coming here like they would if they were going
to Austin or Ohio State or Michigan or Texas, A
and M.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
We're not there yet.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We're working on that, and fifty years from now hopefully
we're like that. Hopefully this does become a destination thing.
And if somebody offers you ten million dollars to go
play in Ireland, or go play in Dallas, or go
play someplace neutral site, yeah that's some revenue that you
can't get anywhere else at that. But I can't imagine
that Auburn can't make this up some other place with
(05:05):
the prowess that they have in their league and the
history that they have and the tradition that they have.
To me, it might help their players a little bit,
but it is killing your fans and your community with
what you're giving up for that weekend.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
I think that this actually is more of a benefit
to Baylor.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And here's why. Because play in Jordan here, that's number one.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
It's not even that well. I mean obviously that factors
into Auburn sacrificed a home game, which you know, if
you pay all these money for stadiums, why the hell
each you playing there? But Baylor is a team that
and this is and this is the thing about the
Big twelve. We don't have a lot of like really
famous stadiums anymore left. And the time that you can
to play in bigger stams, bigger name staums, whether it's
NFL or whatever, is an opportunity for you.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
In terms of recruiting.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Auburn is going to recruit with the SEC regardless, whereas
Baylor is an no offense to Auburn. They have more
money behind them. They've been able to spend more in Nil.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
McLean Stadium, you know in Baylor is one of the
best college football stadiums there is. It seats about sixty
five thousand. That's all they need there. I mean may
not even seat that many. But it's a cool place
to be on game day. And it's from my perspective,
it's the best. It's the best radio booth that I've
ever been in. And I think I did talliedp since
I've been doing the UTSA games. I think we've been
(06:19):
in fifty six different venues. To me, that's number one.
I love what they did at McLain Stadium.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
In fifty six. Huh, who's fifty six?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I mean Utsa is played in fifty six different venues.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Right, So who's the worst one?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Is what I'm saying FORLIDA International. Oh you had that ready, no,
no question. It's an upside down garbage container.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's what it is, with windows cut out that come
to the inside so you can't close them when it rains,
not if it rains. When it rains, and the visiting
radio or the home radio booth is in the same
container with you separated by a shower curtain, like that's
going to block the noise.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, it's the worst ever FORLID.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Internationals shouldn't even be in in Division one football. They
should be like in Division four because there's only down
to Division three. I have nothing positive to say about
anything athletically at FIU. It's the worst. And there's nobody
that's even in the ballpark clothes. It's there. They're in
their own own little bubble. But Ford International, by far
as the worst venue there.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Is is Auburn not really haven't spending that much in
an Io. I know they've been doing on the trash.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Reportal Well, you know, Auburn is the second school of
choice in Alabama. Alabama's gonna get all the money, Auburn's
gonna get second fiddle, and UA B is gonna get third.
And that's why UAB is not very good in their
conference right now. And it's why Auburn's probably in the
same boat at Arkansas and Mississippi State and Missouri and
those schools are is because they can't spend as much
money as Alabama can on players. But occasionally Auburn, you know,
(07:39):
rises up from the dead and wins the conference or
or has a good showing. But I think all of
those communities in the SEC. You know, I said this earlier.
The reason the Big twelve got eight billion dollars, the
Big ten got eight billion dollars for their contract, and
the SEC gets a little bit less. It's not because
of prowess of the school. It's because of market size.
(08:00):
Look where the big ten schools are, Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, Uh,
you know capital cities in Michigan. Uh, They're they're in
the biggest cities in Iowa. They're in the biggest cities
in Nebraska, the biggest cities in Oregon. They they now
have us the l A market. Penn State and Rutgers
are basically considered the Philadelphia and New York markets. So
(08:21):
they're gonna get a lot of money. But where and
so you're it's kind of hard to tally other than
Penn State. Maybe they're not really in rural areas. I
guess West Lafayette for Purdue has but they haven't been
relevant in football in forever. But if you look at
if you look at the SEC, the biggest market in
the SEC is either Austin or Oklahoma City, depending on
what the county is for that week.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
In Nashville, is that a big market in consideration.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
But Vanderbilt's irrelevant. Usually they're the habits at market size. Yeah,
but the rest are college towns, you know, uh, Lexington, Kentucky,
and in Columbia, South Carolina and Starkville and Oxford and
Tuscaloosa and Auburn and Gainesville. There these cities that rely
on those six or seven Saturdays a year, and that's
(09:06):
why teams always in those leagues try to play all
home games in the non conference season if they can,
because they want that added revenue for their communities. Those
communities thrive on those games, and it's really really hard
to make up that lost revenue when you decide to
have a neutral site game. Alabama, a member would play
Ohio State or somebody in Dallas for a neutral site game,
(09:28):
and it was great, and it's on national TV and
all that, but it's far better if they've played that
game in in Tuscaloosa, Columbus.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I would.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Imagine that if you did a little bit of creative
thinking and some creative marketing, it wouldn't matter where you
play the game. You could come up with some in
I own money for your players. All right, Jerry Jones
gets fined. I don't know exactly what he did, but
I got a pretty good idea. We'll talk about the
baseball playoffs and Jeff Trailer joins us. In thirteen minutes,
it's the Indy average show on the tickets
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