One of the reasons Auburn hired Alex Golesh to be its next head coach is he won at a high level at a very difficult program to rack up wins at. While he did not lead South Florida to the College Football Playoff, his predecessor in Jeff Scott did not win games... That is what Auburn is hiring Golesh to do, to win all the games Hugh Freeze never could. From a financial standpoint, he will have no excuses...
Justin Hokanson of On3 reported Auburn's roster for 2026 has eclipsed the $30 million threshold...
Sources tell @AuburnOn3 that Auburn topped the $30 million mark for next year’s roster. Alex Golesh explains how Auburn navigated the portal, roster uncertainty and building depth for a long SEC season.
— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) February 4, 2026
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While that is not the most inordinate amount of money, it is still quite substantial. It is the cost of doing business at a college football blue-blood like Auburn. If you want to remain a top-15 program in the history of the sport, you need to act like it. Put your money where your mouth is, basically. Golesh may have brought with him plenty of South Florida stars, but he is not going to be without financially.
The schedule may dictate a challenging first year for Golesh at Auburn, but the dollars beg to differ.
Alex Golesh has a $30 million Auburn Tigers roster to work with this year
When looking at Auburn's 2026 season schedule, what should be considered realistic expectations? This has been a fringe bowl team the last several years. Whether it has been under Freeze, Bryan Harsin, or the tail-end of the Gus Malzahn era, who just retired from the coaching profession, it has not made a difference. Will Golesh get Auburn to respectability and near a top-25 finish in year one?
Auburn draws Baylor, Samford, and Southern Miss in the non-conference. The Baylor game will be at neutral-site Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That may be Golesh's first game leading the Tigers, but that kind of feels like an early must-win for Auburn. Assuming Auburn goes 3-0 in the non-conference, can they rattle off five wins or so in a new nine-game SEC schedule? It will not be easy, but it is possible...
For the sake of simplicity, you are playing at Georgia and at Alabama this year. That is one, probably two losses on the resume. Again, you need five wins out of your other seven SEC games to make that $30 million roster worthwhile. Florida, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas are all very gettable games at home. Your easiest road games, if any, are at Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Tennessee. You may need two.
After that, Auburn's other SEC home game is vs. LSU right after a road date at Georgia. LSU could be a playoff team, or may come up just short in Lane Kiffin's first year. At best, they are gettable. At worst, they will be Ole Miss from last year. Right now, Golesh has a team every bit capable of going around 7-5 (4-5). It may have a 9-3 (7-2) ceiling, but it should be the goal to get to something like 8-4.
To tie a bow on this, Auburn is built to beat the bottom-half teams in the SEC this season, assuming Byrum Brown takes the league by storm upon transferring over from USF. Of three games most up in the air, which would be at Tennessee, home vs. LSU, and at Ole Miss, Auburn needs to find a way to win at least one of them. If it wins the Iron Bowl year one, which is possible, the playoff could happen...
Right now, the finances Auburn has working for it should stop any perceived schedule excuse making.