NIL: Auburn football's deals are double the national average
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The Auburn coaching staff finally feels like it’s competing on a level playing field on the recruiting trail.
Auburn’s collective, On To Victory, is starting to ramp up after raising over 10 million dollars this year. Last year, a separate NIL collective’s efforts distributed $6.4 million before they had to raise money to make it more sustainable moving forward.
The lack of certainty on a consistent NIL front for Bryan Harsin and the Auburn football program could have put the Tigers behind the eight-ball when it came to securing top talent in the 2023 class compared to fellow top 25-type programs.
“If you have no money in the collective, then there’s no money for NIL deals so what are you supposed to do?,” an SEC source said. “You can’t tell them that there’s going to be money there if there’s no money there.”
According to Drew Fabianich, Auburn General Manager and Director of Scouting, the national average for NIL payments for a college football player is currently about $3,400 a month. The average amount being paid out to Auburn’s football players is now $7,400 a month in NIL deals.
The Tigers are closer to being able to offer a competitive NIL rate when competing with other schools in the SEC, especially compared to its positioning at the beginning of the offseason.
“I think the issue with not having early commitments was truly because our collective was not set up until about three weeks ago,” Fabianich told Auburn Daily.
Since Auburn has gotten its feet up under it, we’ve seen them garner some momentum on the recruiting trail. On September 18th, Auburn added a verbal commitment from defensive linemen Jammarion Harkless, and the following day, they earned a commitment from offensive lineman Gernorris Wilson. Wide receiver Adam Hopkins jumped on September 15.
Of course, NIL is more complex in the recruiting process and the Tigers could have landed either of the new pledges without it becoming a part of the equation, but it’s one less detraction other programs could potentially use against Harsin’s program as the class of 2023 winds down. AU now sits at 10 verbal commitments, eight of which have gone public with a pledge on or after July 1.
Between the spring evaluation period and the early in-season evaluations permitted with the high school season underway, Auburn appears to be making up ground in the recruiting region, but especially within state lines.
Auburn’s coaching staff is believed to have trekked to over 200 Alabama high schools this year. Circling back on those relationships, especially with the strong home slate at Jordan-Hare Stadium this fall, should help to keep top talent on campus throughout the fall. Against Penn State, many of the state’s top uncommitted recruits took in the game in person, including the top two seniors on the board within state lines in Montgomery (Ala.) Carver High School duo James Smith and Qua Russaw.
Plenty of work remains for Harsin and his assistant coaches moving forward, however. As things sit near the end of September, Auburn is ranked outside the top 50 recruiting classes in the country. It will continue to pursue priority talent at obvious positions like offensive line while also working in hopes of flipping up to ”five or six” targets currently committed to other programs before the early signing period, per Fabianich.
On the NIL front, the Tigers are going up against schools that have found success early on the NIL front. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young was reported of having an $800,000 deal before taking a snap as a starter last fall. At Texas, a group has agreed to pay offensive linemen on scholarship $50,000 annually. Texas A&M athletes received $4 million in NIL deals in 2021 with football bringing in $3.3 million of that.
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