Alabama beat writer takes shot at Auburn, Hugh Freeze for hosting UMass

Auburn is going to pay UMass a lot of money to come play in Jordan-Hare on Saturday.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread recently released his SEC power rankings heading into week one of the college football season. Goodbread placed the Tigers at No. 12, and proceeded to take a shot at Auburn for paying a team to make sure the season starts off well.

"So what do the Minutemen charge per minute for 60 of them at Jordan-Hare Stadium? Try $32,500," Goodbread wrote. "That's what Auburn will pay UMass for every minute of game clock — a school-record haul of $1.95 million for the visitors — just to make sure Hugh Freeze's career starts with a feel-good Saturday."

The 2023 UMass game was added to the schedule when Gus Malzahn was still coaching the Tigers. It's hard to believe that Auburn could have projected four years into the future and scheduled this contest (and agreed to a payout) just to make sure Hugh Freeze has an easy first game on The Plains.

It's also worth noting that the Tigers have made an attempt to pay the Minutemen upwards of $1.9 million before - Auburn was originally scheduled to play UMass on November 14th, 2020 - but the schedule was obviously later rearranged due to COVID.

Auburn clearly doesn't have a hard time paying schools to come play "cupcake" matches. It's definitely a lot of money, and as Goodbread pointed out, it's a school-record for the Minutemen.

Goodbread also pokes fun at a few other SEC schools in his rankings, all of which is assumed to be in good fun overall. But, if we're playing along here...

It should be mentioned that Alabama plays Middle Tennessee State to open the 2023 season. The Crimson Tide will be paying the university $1.6 million to come to Bryant-Denny Stadium. That's $26,667 for every minute of game time MTSU plays. Even Miami didn't pay that much to lose 45-31 to lose to the Blue Raiders last season.

All just to make sure Alabama can have an feel-good time finding a quarterback that can actually throw the football before they play Texas, right?

We kid.

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