The Aflac Kickoff Recreation Spent Hundreds of thousands on NIL Offers With Auburn Athletes

Over the past couple of months, the Aflac Kickoff Recreation grew to become the primary neutral-site faculty soccer sport to include NIL compensation for scholar athletes into its advertising technique. The multi-million greenback settlement, y value $6 million, noticed the Peach Bowl, Inc., which operates the sport, accomplice with third-party entities to supply NIL offers to Auburn athletes for advertising belongings and promotional appearances.

Soccer athletes Byrum Brown, Chas Nimrod, Keshaun Singleton, Jo Simmons, Stanton Ramil, and Jeremiah Cobb have been among the many two dozen Auburn soccer athletes who obtained NIL offers to advertise the sport.

“What’s necessary to us is to have scholar athletes whose title, picture and likeness are significant to the followers who could attend our sport and occasions," mentioned David Epps, Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO. "Finally, the scholar athletes who’ve been energetic within the marketing campaign have been recognized by Auburn, and we labored to assign the correct advertising belongings to every of them.”

Epps mentioned the Home settlement final 12 months was the impetus for this marketing campaign.

“After the Home Settlement in June of 2025, we and Auburn each realized that there was a possibility to create NIL for the scholar athletes, who may assist us promote the Aflac Kickoff Recreation in a brand new and distinctive approach. For us, it created a brand new method to offer advantages to the colleges that select to play in our sport, and for Auburn it was an ideal probability to make the most of NIL in an revolutionary approach that will convey worth to their soccer program.”

An Auburn spokesperson mentioned, “Credit score goes to David Epps and his workforce for locating artistic methods to adapt to the altering panorama of school athletics and add worth to student-athletes. This occasion marks a seismic shift in how kickoff video games can function to learn student-athletes and athletics departments alike. By means of a number of conversations with David, the worth of this mannequin for the Aflac Kickoff Recreation grew to become clear: it delivers vital, true third-party NIL alternatives for our student-athletes whereas permitting them to develop each their private manufacturers and Auburn’s model into the Atlanta market and past.”

As a part of the marketing campaign, Auburn athletes appeared in social media posts, commercials and signage, made public appearances, and also will be seen on Saturday as a part of in-game promotions.

Followers could surprise why the sport didn’t additionally faucet Baylor athletes to assist promote.

“As a result of this sport was initially an Auburn dwelling sport, the monetary dedication from the Aflac Kickoff Recreation has been centered solely on them. Nevertheless, the advantage of this mannequin is that it may simply accommodate two groups and two units of gamers sooner or later.”

Epps says he’s pleased with how the marketing campaign has unfolded thus far.

“It’s already been a hit for us, with robust ticket gross sales and an added authenticity to the advertising belongings that we’ve created. Followers need to join with the gamers who they’ll see on the sphere on Saturdays.”

"…it’s a possible gamechanger for neutral-site video games like ours who need to convey added worth to collaborating groups and make it a extra enticing and profitable alternative,” mentioned Epps.

Baylor and Auburn kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, September fifth from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with the sport televised nationally on ABC.

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