Hugh Freeze explains how House settlement has impacted Auburn, ability to recruit

Tuesday marked the start of a new era in college athletics as the House v. NCAA settlement took effect. Revenue-sharing officially arrived, and Hugh Freeze said the new cap has an impact on recruiting.

Under the settlement, schools can directly share up to $20.5 million with athletes through rev-share. That figure is expected to increase annually under the 10-year agreement. The first payments came down this week.

But with the cap, Freeze said Auburn had to worry about retaining players on the roster rather than signing a larger high school class. He added the Tigers are following their interpretation of the settlement as they focus on retention, particularly at positions such as wide receiver.

“It’s quite different,” Freeze said of the new landscape. “First of all, you want to make sure you are operating with what the settlement says, and we think we are. We’re going by what we believe to be the accurate interpretation of it. It’s not really to our advantage to what we’re doing right now because others, I think, are operating in a different manner. But the main thing that I don’t think people understand is retaining your current roster. It used to not affect high school recruiting. You were going to sign your 20-25 guys. But now, with the salary cap, you have to look at a room like our wide receiver room where on paper, we’re not losing a single kid, and we’ve got to retain those guys because I like that room a whole lot.

“So you don’t have the means, so to speak, to go after the number of high school receivers that you would normally go after because you can’t really – again, on paper, we’re not losing anyone and I don’t want to lose one. I really like that room. I love our young d-linemen. It’s kind of difficult. You’re sitting here trying to sign a class when you really don’t know what your current roster will be in January. So that’s a challenge, but you have to operate within the manner of what the settlement really says and the interpretation that we’ve received, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Hugh Freeze: Roster retention is ‘main thing’

Freeze has seen success on the high school recruiting trail since he took over at Auburn in 2024. The Tigers had the nation’s No. 8-ranked class in both 2024 and 2025, but the 2026 cycle is off to a slower start with just seven commitments.

Still, Hugh Freeze expects Auburn to climb back up the recruiting rankings once National Signing Day comes around in December. But he still noted how rev-share makes it more “challenging” to balance player retention vs. filling open spots.

“We’re talking about a staff that’s put together two Top-10 classes, and here we are, we’re really not in that realm right now,” Freeze said. “Do I think we will be in December? I do. I believe that wholeheartedly. We had over 50 visits in June and I thought most families felt like, ‘Man, this is a great place to be.’ But we’ve got to figure all this other [stuff] out. I know John [Cohen] is going to talk more in depth about the parameters to which we’re operating.

“It is more challenging, for sure, but the main thing to me is retaining our current roster and then filling the gaps with, obviously, elite talent from whether it’s the portal or high school recruiting. But retaining that roster does affect the way you approach recruiting, and that’s new. That used to not be the case. I mean, you were going to sign some kids and figure out the numbers on the back end. But you can’t do that and when you have to be under the revenue-sharing cap.”