The Aflac Kickoff Game Spent Millions on NIL Deals With Auburn Athletes

Auburn football athletes were the first to receive NIL deals from a neutral-site college football game

Aflac Kickoff Game

Over the last couple of months, the Aflac Kickoff Game became the first neutral-site college football game to incorporate NIL compensation for student athletes into its marketing strategy. The multi-million dollar agreement, reportedly worth $6 million, saw the Peach Bowl, Inc., which operates the game, partner with third-party entities to offer NIL deals to Auburn athletes for marketing assets and promotional appearances.

Football athletes Byrum Brown, Chas Nimrod, Keshaun Singleton, Jo Simmons, Stanton Ramil, and Jeremiah Cobb were among the two dozen Auburn football athletes who received NIL deals to promote the game.

“What’s important to us is to have student athletes whose name, image and likeness are meaningful to the fans who may attend our game and events,” said David Epps, Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO. “Ultimately, the student athletes who have been active in the campaign were identified by Auburn, and we worked to assign the right marketing assets to each of them.”

Epps said the House settlement last year was the impetus for this campaign.

“After the House Settlement in June of 2025, we and Auburn both realized that there was an opportunity to create NIL for the student athletes, who could help us promote the Aflac Kickoff Game in a new and unique way. For us, it created a new approach to provide benefits to the schools that choose to play in our game, and for Auburn it was a perfect chance to utilize NIL in an innovative way that would bring value to their football program.”

An Auburn spokesperson said, “Credit goes to David Epps and his team for finding creative ways to adapt to the changing landscape of college athletics and add value to student-athletes. This event marks a seismic shift in how kickoff games can operate to benefit student-athletes and athletics departments alike. Through several conversations with David, the value of this model for the Aflac Kickoff Game became clear: it delivers significant, true third-party NIL opportunities for our student-athletes while allowing them to expand both their personal brands and Auburn’s brand into the Atlanta market and beyond.”

As part of the campaign, Auburn athletes appeared in social media posts, advertisements and signage, made public appearances, and will also be seen on Saturday as part of in-game promotions.

Fans may wonder why the game didn’t also tap Baylor athletes to help promote.

“Because this game was originally an Auburn home game, the financial commitment from the Aflac Kickoff Game has been focused exclusively on them. However, the benefit of this model is that it could easily accommodate two teams and two sets of players in the future.”

Epps says he’s happy with how the campaign has unfolded so far.

“It’s already been a success for us, with strong ticket sales and an added authenticity to the marketing assets that we’ve created. Fans want to connect with the players who they’ll see on the field on Saturdays.”

“…it’s a potential gamechanger for neutral-site games like ours who want to bring added value to participating teams and make it a more attractive and lucrative opportunity,” said Epps.

Baylor and Auburn kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 5th from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with the game televised nationally on ABC.