Cohen has many unanswered questions

[aubiefifty 17,488]

al.com

With impending NCAA revenue sharing, Auburn’s John Cohen has many unanswered questions

Updated: Jun. 11, 2024, 7:36 a.m.|Published: Jun. 11, 2024, 6:32 a.m.

6–7 minutes

Auburn Athletics Director John Cohen speaks after being introduced during a press conference in Auburn, Ala., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Todd Van Emst)AP

Auburn athletic director John Cohen joked that he might have set the record for the most times using the word “standard” while being interviewed on the Paul Finebaum Show, but it isn’t far off from the questions he’s had long before the long-standing nature of college sports took a complete reset because of the impending implementation of a court settlement to share collegiate athletics revenue and in turn, pay athletes.

Before the much-discussed House vs. NCAA settlement became a reality, Cohen had frequently discussed seeking a standard. He had his own thoughts and opinions to tackle big picture questions on the ever-evolving world of Name, Image and Likeness deals as well as the transfer portal. He suggested bringing NIL collectives to be under the umbrella of a school’s athletic department before the revenue-sharing outcome came to fruition. But what he really sought was just some sort of standard. Some sort of guideline to follow. That still doesn’t exist.

And when asked by reporters while speaking last week at the Associated Press Sports Editors Southeast region meeting in Birmingham, Cohen still showed some of the most pressing issues he’ll tackle in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement are still unanswered questions.

Pressed on what the settlement could mean for the future of non-revenue sports, Cohen said he will have to make “difficult decisions.”

“None of us wants to take anything away from any of our sports,” Cohen said. “But there’s these challenges and these laws that are colliding and we’re in the middle of it. That part’s not fun. But we do recognize that this is a new frontier.”

That new frontier could include roster limits for large sports like football. It also will include the elimination of scholarship limits per the House vs. NCAA settlement. In all, that likely leads to the end of walk-ons.

Nor do Cohen’s comments provide a clear indication of what non-revenue sports will look like going forward at Auburn as a result of this settlement. In large part, that may be because it’s so early in the process and, as Cohen said, there still isn’t a standard. But when asked specifically about whether Auburn will be able to fund its 21 varsity sports, Cohen didn’t have a direct answer.

Cohen’s point rested more in that any of the funding required for revenue sharing isn’t going to money that magically appears. It will be coming from part of Auburn’s existing athletics budget. And if the money in that budget is being put toward revenue spending, that means it is being pulled from something else.

But pulled from what, exactly? That much is certainly uncertain.

“Is it going to come from budgets already in our athletic department,” Cohen said. “Yes. It has to. We’re going to have make some really difficult decisions.”

Budget cuts are coming to have the required funding to keep up in the new revenue-sharing world of college sports. But Auburn will still have several large expenditures it can’t dilute. It has contracted high coaching salaries. It includes maintenance of facilities.

Cohen seemed to suggest student experience could be where budget cuts will come.

“Now, we have to spend money and focus it in a different area, how does that change the experience of the student-athlete,” Cohen said. “These are all things that we’re grappling with and we’re gonna get there, but it’s going to look different.”

Auburn is not hurting for money. Its 2023 fiscal year revenue mark set a record bringing in $195,301,922. Yet Auburn finished the year with a $3.2 million surplus. Generally, athletic departments try to have a fairly even bottom line and do so with large costs on projects such as facility renovations.

Auburn has already commissioned a $25.7 million football videoboard upgrade planned to be completed for 2025 as well as setting up a large-scale overhaul of the entire Jordan-Hare Stadium north endzone in years to come. Auburn is also already in the midst of a $30 million renovation to Plainsman Park and completed its new $92 million Woltosz Football Performance Center for the 2023 season — the largest facility project in Auburn’s history.

But signs of the impending budget cuts begin to appear elsewhere. Ole Miss is putting its plans to renovate Swayze Field on hold because of uncertainty with impending revenue sharing. The suggestion from Ole Miss is that this won’t be the only pause to come. Similar measures could be taken elsewhere, too.

While money often seems unlimited in the SEC and the Big Ten — the two dominant collegiate athletics conferences — it’s important to remember that it in fact is not.

That’s now the questions Cohen has to traverse. Do roster sizes get cut? Do entire sports get cut? How does this all meet Title IX policies? And if not any of that, something is going to get rolled back. But what?

Cohen talked frequently about having tough calls or big decisions but said it was too early to say what those are.

For now, this is college sports. A tangled web of lacking clarity until someone finally makes a decision, and then the dominos that follow.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.