Athletic director John Cohen suggested August 1st as a date to mark on the recruitment calendar after Auburn football experienced a period of recruiting difficulties over the summer.
Since colleges can now directly split money with athletes, today marks the first day that players in the 2026 class can get formal offers. Cohen blamed the new revenue sharing plan for a large portion of Auburn’s summer recruitment failures.
Cohen and head coach Hugh Freeze stated that the Tigers were avoiding making high-profile offers to high school recruits in favor of retaining the present group. Cohen hinted that other institutions might not be adhering to the House Settlement’s regulations in the same manner, making significant verbal promises that might not be enforceable.
Because those verbal offers can start to be put in writing, the date of August 1st becomes crucial.
During his interview on Friday’s McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning radio show, Cohen emphasized the significance of August 1.
According to Cohen, we understood that the Southeastern Conference had informed us that the first day to make a written offer to a potential student-athlete is August 1. Perhaps I’m overselling it, but the reason I think this is important is that it’s possible that written offers have already been made unlawfully all over the world. And perhaps we will enforce it. We might not be. Who knows?
Given that the College Sports Commission only has three employees working for 70 Power Four schools, Cohen didn’t seem confidence in the enforcement.
We’re making an effort to follow the rules. “We know that there are people in the world who are not taking it seriously, and we are trying to treat it with the utmost seriousness,” Cohen added. Perhaps we should change course and follow the other guidelines.
As Cohen explained, on July 31, the College Sports Commission issued new NIL guidelines that permitted school collectives to return to the game.
According to Cohen, Auburn was initially certain that collectives would no longer have as much of an impact after the House Settlement, but that has since altered in light of the new guidelines.
To be honest, we’re going to be very aggressive in that area with third parties based on what you just said about collectives and new guidelines, Cohen stated. We will also make a significant investment in third-party prospects if they are unrestricted and, once more, require approval through NIL Go.
Athletes can earn from third-party NIL arrangements, which are exempt from the revenue-sharing cap, according to Cohen. The CSC’s new guideline modifies the original advise that followed the House Settlement, which said that payments from an official school collective would either not be accepted or could be deducted from the cap.
If the agreements are for a legitimate business purpose including the endorsement or marketing of goods or services to the general public and those goods or services must be sold for a profit, the new advice permits collectives to compensate athletes.
When asked how those third-party agreements would be monitored to comply with the rules, Cohen was unable to provide a definitive response.
He answered, “I’m not sure I can answer that right now.” We are aware that the person engaging a student-athlete for a marketing campaign or a third-party opportunity including their name, image, or likeness must demonstrate that they are turning a profit of some sort. Therefore, I believe that it is policed, and I believe that it is policed because it must go through a process with NIL Go.
On To Victory, Auburn’s official collective since 2022, is moving to Auburn Sports Properties and merging with WarEagle+, an established subscription content network, as part of the university’s recent announcements on its NIL initiatives.
According to 247Sports, the Tigers’ 2026 recruiting class is currently ranked 70th in the nation. Auburn is now 19 spots higher in the SEC than it was earlier in the summer, but still second to last.
Although the December signing window is still a ways off, Cohen said Auburn still has a lot of work ahead of it. Though it sounds like the road back will require adjustments, there is still plenty of time to do it.
For AL.com, Peter Rauterkus writes about Auburn athletics. You may email him at prauterkus@al.com or follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus.
