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Off Campus College Football Games - Peach Bowl NIL deal

The Rising Price of Taking College Football Off Campus

As home games become more valuable, neutral-site operators need new reasons for schools to leave campus. Peach Bowl CEO David Epps says NIL may become part of that equation.

Reporting note: SportsEpreneur spoke with Peach Bowl CEO David Epps on August 6, 2026, about the changing economics of neutral-site college football and Peach Bowl’s NIL model. Read the full conversation with Epps.

Auburn has sold out its public football season tickets for four consecutive years, including 63,500 for 2026. Each Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium carries ticket and premium revenue, donor and sponsor access, and control of a fan experience Auburn already owns. It also concentrates recruiting visits and a full weekend of economic activity around the Auburn campus.

The September 5 game against Baylor was originally supposed to be Auburn’s home leg of a home-and-home series. Moving it to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta left the Tigers with six campus games in 2026 and raised a basic business question for Peach Bowl, Inc., which operates the Aflac Kickoff Game: What would make surrendering that home date worthwhile?

“When you’re trying to put on a neutral-site game like the Aflac Kickoff Game, it’s hard enough to convince a team to come play away from their home stadium, potentially have to give up a home game,” David Epps, CEO of Peach Bowl, Inc., told SportsEpreneur. “So one of the incentives toward doing that is if participation in that game can help generate some additional NIL revenue.”

Peach Bowl’s arrangement with Auburn adds athlete name, image, and likeness compensation to the value package surrounding a neutral-site game. One agreement does not make NIL a standard term for kickoff events. It shows how an operator can use athlete marketing to address the growing opportunity cost of taking a major program off campus.

Why Home Games Are Getting Harder to Give Up

In April, Auburn approved the approximately $305 million Jordan-Hare North project. The plan includes more than 3,000 new and expanded premium experiences and more than 50 suites. The project turns future home dates into more valuable premium inventory.

“These are tougher and tougher to put these matchups together because schools are making more and more investments in their home experience,” Epps said. “It’s part of the changing landscape right now of college football: Do coaches, do athletic directors, do fans want to go to a neutral site as often, or would they rather just stay at home?”

The economics vary by program and matchup. But the more value a school creates on campus, the more a neutral-site operator must replace.

NIL Enters the Neutral-Site Offer

Peach Bowl and Auburn describe their arrangement as a multi-million-dollar agreement involving up to 24 Auburn athletes. CBS Sports reported that the athletes could share roughly $6 million through guaranteed marketing commitments and a compensation component tied to ticket sales. Peach Bowl and Auburn have not publicly confirmed that figure. It is compensation for selected athletes providing promotional value to the event, not a $6 million payment to Auburn.

“Our discussion with Auburn centered around us being the event promoter, utilizing student-athletes to help us promote ticket sales, promote fan events, promote television viewership in a way that actually uses NIL for what it’s intended to be,” Epps said, “which is leaning on the value of the student-athlete’s name, image, and likeness to help create some commercial benefit or excitement around your product.”

The official announcement lists social posts, public appearances, advertisements, in-game promotions, media interviews, signage, and branding opportunities among the potential activations. Epps told SportsEpreneur that Auburn identifies the available pool of athletes and the event organizers decide which players fit particular executions. The campaign is designed to support ticket sales, surrounding events, and television viewership.

The final athlete list and individual compensation are private. So are the ticket-sales formula, contracting parties, and funding path. Aflac is the game’s title sponsor, but no public evidence establishes that it funds or operates the athlete NIL program.

Epps told Auburn247 that Peach Bowl planned to direct to athletes some money it otherwise would have paid to the athletic department. That places athlete compensation inside the broader event offer, but it does not establish who contracts with or pays each athlete.

The third-party NIL compensation is separate from revenue Auburn may share directly with athletes. The athletes are providing identifiable promotional services, consistent with the distinction explained in SportsEpreneur’s guide to NIL rules in 2026. The private agreements determine the precise usage rights, an issue SportsEpreneur explored with attorney Philip Sheng in a conversation about NIL contracts and athlete ownership.

A New Bargaining Point, Not Yet a Standard

Participating athletes receive compensation and exposure for specified marketing work. Auburn can present another NIL opportunity to players and recruits, potentially creating recruiting and retention value without treating the money as a direct institutional payment. Peach Bowl gains player-led promotional inventory that can help it sell the event.

A neutral-site organizer has traditionally offered schools a financial guarantee, a destination, national television exposure, ticket access, hospitality, and a high-profile opponent. Athlete marketing adds another asset to that package while returning some of the value it creates to the players.

Peach Bowl and Auburn call the arrangement a first for neutral-site college football. Prior postseason bowls have executed individual player NIL deals. This structure operates at a different scale: a season-opening neutral-site event with multiple athlete activations and, according to CBS, a ticket-linked component.

Epps did not say other neutral-site operators have adopted the model. He expects teams may begin asking them to consider it.

“If the other sites that are trying to do these types of games don’t volunteer to do it, I suspect that the teams who are looking will ask, because it’s clearly something that can work if you do it the right way,” Epps said.

A program evaluating a neutral-site invitation can compare the offer against the full value of staying home. Once one package includes athlete NIL compensation, competing operators may have to explain why theirs does not.

Money is only part of what an operator must replace. “We’re in the experience business,” Epps said. Peach Bowl has to create value for the school, athletes, fans, media partners, sponsors, and host city while producing an event that feels connected to the participating programs.

Campus games come with traditions, familiar routines, donor access, and a concentrated fan base. Peach Bowl works with participating schools to bring parts of that environment into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, including bands, team walks, and other familiar elements. Those details help replace some of what a school and its supporters surrender when the game moves.

The Auburn-Baylor event alone cannot establish NIL as a standard neutral-site expense. Replication by another organizer would be stronger evidence that the Peach Bowl model has changed the offer schools expect.

If home dates continue becoming more valuable, neutral-site operators will have to keep finding ways to justify leaving campus. Peach Bowl has added NIL to that equation. The next signal is whether schools begin asking other organizers for similar value.

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