Hugh Freeze Blames NCAA’s Revenue Cap for Auburn’s Recruiting Struggles

Auburn has suffered the consequences of other programs being more aggressive with NIL deals, as the Tigers have struggled to keep up with the spending pace of others. Decommitments and missed targets have hurt their chances to compete at the highest level and made them the bottom team in the SEC.

The limited NIL budget has played against them, placing their 2026 recruiting class 89th nationally and last in the SEC, according to 247Sports. 

Talking with reporters on Wednesday, Freeze said he was confident that his team could recruit a top-10 class, but noted that the challenge is different with all the changes taking place. 

“Yeah, it has to be," Freeze said. "I mean, again, you have to look at your current roster and you're trying to manage the revenue sharing cap and when you look at a room and you don't have really on paper anything available, that's that's challenging. 

"And so it's not like the last few years where there was no cap and you went after the the best players and you didn't really worry about the numbers or but you know if my understanding is correct from everything we we've heard the the penalties for going over the cap are not fun and so you have to manage that. 

He added:

"And when you're looking at rooms in our place like the quarterback room or the wide receiver room or the Dline room where we're not losing many players at all on paper, and we like them, you know, it's hard to to just go out and be free like we were the last few years to go and and recruit kids.

This isn't the first time Freeze has blamed Auburn's limited resources as a major factor in missing out on top recruits. The revenue cap includes all sports, not only those that bring the most money to the university, meaning the team will have to maneuver to distribute that money across different disciplines. 

The Tigers posted a 5-7 record in 2024, which could worsen amid all these financial changes.