The Auburn Tigers are in their worst five-year stretch in modern history on the gridiron. Not since 1950 has AU ever come off five straight losing seasons. Never before have the Tigers had six straight losing campaigns, which Auburn is in danger of this fall.
Still, the orange and blue brand is as strong as ever. After all, Peach Bowl, Inc. has partnered with the Tigers football team to collectively pay players $6 million for promotional efforts for a Week 1 matchup with the Baylor Bears on September 5 in Atlanta, on top of paying $4 million to the athletics department for the game.
Hugh Freeze's losing over the past three years, which was embarrassing because of his known golf habit but also because the entertainment value of games tanked with his highly frustrating, ugly offense, didn't hold the team back from being included in this game. By the same token, Alex Golesh's arrival, which promises to bring a fast-paced, viewer-friendly offense, didn't influence the Peach Bowl's decision, either.
As Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO David Epps told me, Auburn's historical importance to the sport was what convinced the Aflac Kickoff Game's brain trust to invest in the Tigers football team in exchange for moving a major home-and-home opener at Jordan-Hare Stadium to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
"When we look at a team or a program, that's really what we're looking at. The coaches are not necessarily even a consideration when you put a matchup like this together," Epps told me. "Traditionally, if you have a program like Auburn, a brand like Auburn, that is historically meaningful to college football, historically meaningful in the South, we just knew that anytime you had an opportunity to put the Tigers in this game, it should be something we look into. And putting together the new NIL program was just icing on the cake because it gave us a chance to find a solution to a problem we had in Atlanta, which is finding the right teams to participate in the game.
"And it also found a solution to a problem that Auburn was having, which all athletic departments are having now, which is: how do you continue to drive revenue and support the NIL for your student-athletes? So, it really had much more to do with us. We've had Auburn in many of our Chick-fil-A Peach Bowls. We've had Auburn in our kickoff games before, so it's a pretty easy decision when you have a chance to bring the Tigers back to Atlanta."
What does Baylor get for being in the Aflac Kickoff Game?
It's clear that AU is coming out of its deal with Peach Bowl, Inc. as a major winner. What about Baylor, though? The Bears aren't getting paid to promote the game, but Epps explained how Baylor is still coming out of this as a winner.
"This game is a little bit unusual because this was a game that was already going to take place in Auburn, so this was going to be a return home game from when Auburn went to Baylor last year. So in this particular case, there's not an NIL benefit to Baylor. The real benefits for Baylor are that they get to come and play on sort of an elevated platform, an elevated stage, playing in one of these big-time neutral-site games," Epps said.
"The game ends up being played on national TV on ABC in the middle of the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. So they can certainly use this and leverage a game like this for recruiting and for additional hospitality, for boosters and followers who may call Atlanta home, but who don't get to make it out to Waco very often. And just the fact of playing in a game like this against a big opponent to start the year ... we always hear from the coaches that it gives them something in the offseason to point to and really focus on, so that, instead of opening the season up with more of a cupcake or a gimme, they've got a real legit opponent that they have to prepare for. And it makes sure that they are as productive as they can be during their spring practice, and then also during fall camp."
The Bears may not be getting paid like the Tigers are, but Baylor is getting a bigger spotlight by playing Auburn in one of the South's historical football cities. That could be a major positive if used correctly.
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