Auburn set to pay John Cohen $1.5 million per year as new athletic director

Auburn is officially finalizing a five-year deal with John Cohen, as he’s now leaving his post at Mississippi State and takeover as the school’s athletic director.

Pete Thamel of ESPN confirmed the suspicions, and Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated later revealed that Cohen told the Bulldogs his time in Starkville has come to an end. 

Now, Tom Green of AL.com has the financials, which feature a nice raise for Cohen to move over to Auburn.

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“Auburn to pay John Cohen $1.5 million per year as new AD, per @RossDellenger,” tweeted Green. “Decent raise for Cohen, who was making $1.1 million after his extension at Mississippi State.

“It’s also a significant investment from Auburn, which paid last AD just $625k/year.”

Alas, Auburn isn’t making any bones about it — they believed Cohen to be the man to get them out of the rut they’re in.

Moreover, Cohen graduated from Mississippi State and played baseball there from 1987-90, and has served as the Bulldogs’ athletic director since 2016 after he coached the baseball team from 2009-16. At Auburn, he will reunite with baseball coach Butch Thompson, who served as his pitching coach in Starkville from 2009-15.

Thompson and Cohen led the Bulldogs baseball team to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2011-14. They also won the SEC Tournament in 2012 and made it to the College World Series in Omaha in 2013. 

During his time as athletic director in Starkville, Cohen hired Mike Leach to lead the Bulldogs’ football program. He will likely have to make another big coaching call once he takes over at Auburn.

The biggest question at Auburn this year is the future of head football coach Bryan Harsin. His future has been up in the air throughout this season, and the feeling is his seat got hotter once Greene left. The Tigers dropped to 3-5 this season after Saturday’s loss against Arkansas on The Plains.

The last 18 months have been tumultuous for Harsin and the football program. In February, the university launched an inquiry into the program and Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson reported Harsin’s future was “in question” after just one season. But the university opted to keep Harsin in place following the investigation.

Recently, multiple Auburn players announced their intentions to enter the transfer portal. Three players — A.D. Diamond, Tar’Varish Dawson and Landen King — all announced they plan to enter the portal when the window opens in December.

On3’s Chandler Vessels and Nick Schultz contributed to this report.