{"id":765816,"date":"2026-07-16T07:28:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T07:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765816\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T07:28:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T07:28:27","slug":"auburn-players-to-share-6-million-in-nil-deal-for-neutral-site-opener-vs-baylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765816\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn players to share $6 million in NIL deal for neutral-site opener vs. Baylor"},"content":{"rendered":"

College football<\/a> has never paid players to play in a neutral-site game. Until now.<\/p>\n

Auburn<\/a> is expected to share roughly $6 million with players in a groundbreaking NIL deal tied to the program’s appearance in the Aflac Kickoff Game against Baylor<\/a> on Sept. 5, sources with knowledge of the agreement told CBS Sports. The money will be distributed among up to 24 Auburn players under a guarantee model that includes marketing commitments and promotional appearances. Players will also be paid through a revenue-sharing component tied directly to the game’s ticket sales.<\/p>\n

The deal, first announced Monday, marks the first time a neutral-site college football game has incorporated NIL compensation for players. Peach Bowl, Inc., has partnered with third-party entities to structure the arrangement, which runs from July through kickoff at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alex Golesh inherits Auburn rebuild and one old question: How long to beat Alabama?<\/p>\n

\n Brandon Marcello <\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Players will take part in a series of “activations” promoting the game and its events. Those include social media posts, public appearances, advertisements, in-game promotions, media interviews, and signage and branding opportunities.<\/p>\n

The revenue-share component tied to ticket sales is what separates this deal from a standard endorsement model. Players now seemingly have a financial stake in the game. Auburn received an allotment of 20,645 tickets for the neutral-site game \u2013 most tickets were included in Auburn’s season-ticket package \u2013 as the home team. Baylor received 3,000 tickets, the typical amount set aside for a team visiting an SEC stadium.<\/p>\n

Other neutral-site organizers are watching. Neutral-site games, a staple on Labor Day weekend, have lost leverage as schools increasingly prioritize home schedules to protect their CFP positioning. A direct revenue share for players could be the answer to winning them back.<\/p>\n

“In the new NIL era of college football, this will be an innovative way to create wins for the teams, programs and student-athletes,” said Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO David Epps. “This new model is a true win-win scenario where Auburn and its student-athletes get a financial boost in the NIL space. At the same time, it’s a potential game-changer for neutral-site games like ours who want to bring added value to participating teams and make it a more attractive and lucrative opportunity.”<\/p>\n

The Aflac Kickoff Game will be Auburn’s fourth appearance in the event, formerly known as the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Baylor is appearing for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Auburn and Baylor originally scheduled a home-and-home series, but the teams agreed to move the final game from Auburn to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Auburn defeated Baylor 38-24 on the road to open the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Kickoff on Sept. 5 is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College football has never paid players to play in a neutral-site game. Until now. Auburn is expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[6240,327341,327343,327342,3084,19121,1775,1607,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-765816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-auburn-football","tag-auburn-football-nil","tag-auburn-players-6-million-nil","tag-auburn-season-opener-2026","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-baylor","tag-baylor-bears","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}