Bruce Pearl, John Cohen talk Auburn basketball-only facility vs. NIL needs
The landscape around college athletics is rapidly changing. Everyone sees it, including Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl and Director of Athletics John Cohen. The two spoke about the dynamics around the need for a new basketball-only facility versus the needs of NIL at a recent alumni event in LaGrange, Ga.
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BASKETBALL FACILITY ON HOLD: Pearl has worked for years to gain traction in building a brand-new basketball-only facility, but those plans were put on hold in 2022.
- The project was agreed upon in 2022 and it appeared would be moving forward. Initial discussions around location were already taking place, but has since been put on hold.
- Funding for facilities comes from the same people and places that NIL funding is coming from. That presents a dynamic that coaches and administrators will have to work around moving forward.
- Volleyball, women’s basketball, gymnastics and men’s basketball all use the two available courts inside Neville Arena. It often times presents scheduling conflicts.
- “Coming off the heels of the Woltosz Performance Center and a very exciting baseball project that’s coming on line, there’s a lot of need,” Pearl said. “There was no better way for me to demonstrate the importance of NIL than this is a basketball facility that I’ve worked really hard to get and if we can’t do it and do it right, let’s not bite off more than we can chew.”
COHEN REMAINS CONSISTENT REGARDING NIL, FACILITIES: Cohen told Auburn Live in February the dynamics between NIL and facility fundraising is creating “tough decisions” for coaches and administrators.
- Cohen said at the alumni event, “we have to go into this with our eyes open and we have to make priority decisions in terms of flow of funding.”
- Cohen was directly asked if there’s been any thoughts to decreasing the money it takes to be involved with Tigers Unlimited, the school’s fundraising arm for athletics, in order to free up monies for people to contribute to Auburn’s primary NIL collective On To Victory. Cohen didn’t provide a direct answer, saying, “all those decisions have to be made by those kind and generous enough,” adding, “we all have to change.”
