The Auburn Tigers were selected to be the recipients of a historic NIL deal for the Aflac Kickoff Game against the Baylor Bears at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta this Labor Day weekend by Peach Bowl, Inc. The deal will be worth $10 million, with more than half of that going to Tigers players for their promotional efforts for the game and the rest going to AU's athletic department.
As Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO David Epps told me, choosing the orange and blue had the most to do with the historical significance Auburn has to the South. It probably also had to do with paying Auburn University a pretty penny for the revenue that will be lost from not staging the return matchup of a home-and-home series against Baylor at Jordan-Hare Stadium, but I digress.
Naturally, I felt it relevant to ask Epps who might be in line for a similar financial opportunity in future years. Epps revealed a number of teams within the SEC and ACC's southeastern blueprint that would make sense in the Tigers' spot.
"I mean, you look at the neutral site games, and it's always beneficial to have a team that has some geographical proximity to Atlanta. Certainly, the teams that we'd love to have in the future are some of the teams we've had in the past. You can draw a circle around Atlanta ... you look at Clemson, you look at South Carolina, you look at the North Carolina teams. Certainly, you can go into Tennessee. You go into Mississippi and Alabama. Obviously, Auburn, the University of Alabama, and you know, even in Florida with Florida State, Florida, Miami, then obviously Georgia and Georgia Tech," Epps said.
"It's sort of the original ACC/SEC footprint, and then opportunistically, if you have a chance to bring in a Big 10 or a Big 12 team against a really good anchor, a really good southern opponent, you look for a chance to do that as well."
What about the rest of the SEC?
I asked Epps if there was any interest in teams outside of that Atlanta-centered radius. From the sounds of it, there is, but it comes down to logistics. Epps named a number of schools that he'd love to have, but wouldn't commit to.
"Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not it's something that makes sense for their fans. Obviously, a game like this doesn't work unless there's a significant size of fans, the size of the fan base that is willing and able to travel to support the team. Like I didn't mention Vanderbilt, we'd be happy to have Vanderbilt playing the game. Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not there are enough Vanderbilt fans who are willing and interested to come see them play. Plenty of great programs out there also, like Arkansas and Texas and even Missouri," Epps said.
"So we're not exclusive and we certainly aren't unwilling to talk to anybody. It's really all about just putting the right deal together, and then also having a team on the other side that is willing to play them and who they are willing to play."
Perhaps SEC programs closer to or in the Lone Star State, like the Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies, Oklahoma Sooners, Arkansas Razorbacks, or Missouri Tigers, should hope that the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association stages something similar at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in the future. The Peach Bowl, Inc. seems to understand what their bread and butter is: the fan bases nearby who have the means to invade Atlanta in droves.
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