The Auburn Tigers' athletic department didn't outperform the Alabama Crimson Tide's in revenue from fan attendance during the 2025 season. The University of Alabama claimed a $14 million ticket sales victory over Auburn University.
Truthfully, the kicker was that over $4 million was spent on two of former AU athletic director Allen Greene's biggest mistakes: fired and disgraced Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin and fired Tigers women's basketball coach Johnnie Harris. Of course, the latter was responsible for $308,100 of that total. Harsin was far more expensive despite being fired two and a half years prior.
Of note, this number doesn't include Hugh Freeze. His buyout payments will end in 2029, meaning the next several financial reports will include John Cohen's Freeze mistake. Harsin will also be on the 2026 report, which will have both ghosts of Auburn football's past.
Per AL.com, "Alabama’s revenue and expenses lead could be seen across multiple categories on the 2025 financial reports. The Crimson Tide beat out Auburn $49.1 million to $35.1 million in ticket sales revenue across all sports, and $42.7 million to $30.7 million in football-only tickets.
Hugh Freeze’s buyout was not included in the 2025 financial numbers, as it happened outside of the fiscal year dates. However, Auburn still outspent Alabama in the severance category, due to previous coach firings, dropping $4.3 million across all sports, while the Crimson Tide did not pay out a single dollar." (h/t Roll 'Bama Roll)
Alabama's financial report narrative win means nothing in the grand scheme
Money talks, right? So what does $14 million in ticket revenue have to say to billionaire boosters? Rhetorical question. Not much.
The Tide have bigger stadiums and arenas, and Tuscaloosa is a bigger metro than Auburn-Opelika. For now. What they don't have, as Paul Finebaum has pointed out, is billionaires supporting them like the Tigers do.
“We’re talking billionaires now and outside of Texas and Texas A&M, the list of billionaires starts to get really thin. I could tell you in the state of Alabama, there are two billionaires, only two in the entire state. They’re both Auburn supporters. Alabama doesn’t have a billionaire. And why is a billionaire important Matt? Because they can throw around money. You could throw around money if you’re worth $800 million too but it’s a little bit easier if you’re a billionaire to give your school, not only to put your father’s name on the business building, but to give your NIL fund whatever it needs," Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show.
“And you just can’t call the commissioner of the SEC and say here you have to solve this problem. You can’t print money unless you got your keys to the printing press and it’s a problem.”
As long as those who control the economy are backing the Orange and Blue, the Crimson Tide may need to accept that the University of Alabama no longer runs the game in the NIL/rev-share era. Not even in their own state.
Soon enough, the standings will reflect that in football.