Auburn Fans Enraged After Tigers Move Baylor Game to Atlanta

The Auburn Tigers will now face Baylor in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to open the 2026 season next year, and fans haven’t hesitated to express their displeasure with the change.

It was announced Monday afternoon that Auburn’s return game of the home-and-home agreement with Baylor will now be played just a couple of hours up the road for the Aflac Kickoff Game, according to a release.

Kicking off the 2026 season in Atlanta🦅
Auburn vs. Baylor | @AflacKickoff

📰: https://t.co/vqJHqm1zzF pic.twitter.com/4zrd3cclfD
— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) October 6, 2025

The move is supposed to generate millions of dollars in NIL for Auburn student-athletes, and the opportunity is the “first-of-its-time” regarding the uniqueness of this new neutral-site game setting.

According to the release, student-athletes will be able to profit from ticket sales, the Aflac Kickoff Game itself, and surrounding events, providing them with “meaningful visibility” and “new avenues to benefit from their NIL.”

Although the Tigers will technically still “host” the Bears, and Auburn is set to receive a greater allotment of tickets for season-ticket holders and students than Baylor will, fans are furious about the idea of one less home game in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“Thanks for continuing to hate the community you ‘call’ home and take games out of there for this BS,” a fan said on X.

Auburn could ultimately rake in north of $5 million when it’s all said and done, and in the big picture, the ability to stay ahead of the curve financially will determine how successful a program is in this new, ever-changing world of NIL.

Despite athletic director John Cohen and company taking this necessary step to advance Auburn’s NIL status and income, fans seem to focus on the loss of a home game – after the move, the Tigers now only play six games on the Plains in 2026.

“I'm sick and d*mn tired of you idiots. You increase our ticket prices by $1500 and you put on a team that's even worse than the two years before. Now you wanna take a home game and make it a neutral game. You're this desperate for NIL. Only Auburn could be this d*mn stupid,” another X user said.

“From the pageantry of the Loveliest Village on the Plains during gamedays, the incredible tailgates, Toomer’s lemonade, the flight of War Eagle, and the assembly at Toomer’s Oaks after big wins, there’s nothing quite like an Auburn Football home game,” a fan account posted on X. “Moving a home game from AU to a neutral site all in the name of corporate sponsorship is a slap in the face to Auburn fans and the community as a whole.”

This may come as a surprise to most fans, considering the extent to which the athletic department advertises the spectacular environment that Auburn fans get to experience on Saturdays in Jordan-Hare.

After dark... Jordan-Hare comes alive 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XDpnrDcvGW
— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) October 7, 2025

“Auburn’s entire public persona is centered on how great the atmosphere at home games is. They posture about it constantly. And now they’re giving up a season-opening home game after already playing the road game in the series. These games are awful for fans and more are coming,” another fan said.

Another main talking point among the Auburn corner of social media is the detrimental effects that this move will have on the small businesses, restaurants, and shops around the town that rely on busy gameday weekends to generate a significant amount of their revenue.

As expected, the Auburn Family is incensed about the negative impacts of taking a heavy-traffic weekend away from businesses.

“Just a giant middle finger to Auburn fans, players, students, the local businesses and employees,” a neutral college football account posted. “The people in that community who count on these experiences financially and for memories, sold out for a line item on an accounting ledger that they’ll never see.”

One X user even changed their handle name to “BoycottBaylorGame,” indicating the Auburn fans should display some sort of backlash for this decision.

And not only are Auburn fans enraged, but Baylor fans are also disappointed that they won’t get to experience the pageantry and unique traditions that a game in Jordan-Hare offers.

“From a Baylor fan… this sucks. I was looking forward to visiting Jordan Hare, not some stale NFL stadium. Huge miss here,” someone replied on X.

The bottom line is that fans will only see these types of shifts start to increase as universities learning to navigate this new era of college athletics. In the long run, changing this game to a neutral site and an event with considerable NIL opportunities should benefit the Tigers significantly moving forward.

However, two things can be true at once. Although this may help the football program monetarily, fans certainly aren’t taking it well, as it feels like they just had one of the most highly anticipated games of 2026 stripped from their hands via corporate benefits and advancements.