Last year, college football bowl games paid players through NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals. Next year, that practice will expand to at least one season-opening kickoff game.
Auburn is moving its Sept. 5, 2026, home game against Baylor to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It will now be next season’s Aflac Kickoff Game, an annual event hosted by Peach Bowl, Inc. that, in recent years, has hosted Power 4 opponents Georgia, Clemson, South Carolina, and Tennessee, among others.
As part of the move, Auburn players will be able to engage in “NIL activations tied directly to ticket sales … and surrounding events,” according to the announcement, which calls the deal a “multi-million-dollar partnership.” Organizers will “work with third-party entities to secure marketing assets and promotional appearances by Auburn student-athletes, giving them meaningful visibility and new avenues to benefit from their NIL.”
Auburn and Baylor originally agreed to a home-and-home series for 2025 and 2026; the Tigers beat the Bears 38–24 in Waco, Texas, on Aug. 29 to open the season.
Season-opening neutral-site matchups this year included a two-game Aflac Kickoff series—Duke’s Mayo Classic in Charlotte, and the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin. Similar events have been hosted in recent years in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Orlando, among other cities.
All Season Long
The expansion of NIL into a neutral-site college football kickoff game comes after two postseason bowl games last season set up similar pacts for players.
The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl signed South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers and Illinois signal-caller Luke Altmyer to NIL deals, via the game’s title sponsor, before the Gamecocks and Fighting Illini squared off in Orlando. Players from Miami (Ohio) and Colorado State also received NIL deals around their clash in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop. No financial details were released for any of those deals.
Peach Bowl, Inc. operates the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which this season will be a College Football Playoff semifinal.
