Auburn, explained:

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

I'm in Phoenix for a few days...I plan to speak to a college class today, catch some college baseball, interview some industry experts, and be back in Chicago on Sunday.

I spent most of Thursday in transit, but I do have some cool things to share with you.

We're hiring!

Well, not Extra Points, specifically (yet). But my parent company, Drive & Company, IS hiring, and these roles will work with me on a regular basis. We're looking for a General Manager to help with our Small College (think D-II, D-III, NAIA) programming, and a new podcast host. If you have subject matter expertise in small colleges or how the college sports sausage gets made, know your way around a microphone and Adobe, please consider reaching out. The application instructions are in the links, but I'll do my best to answer questions.

And on Extra Points, I'm always happy to take freelance pitches. I pay $350+ for freelance stories. [email protected]. Original reporting is awesome, but not required...i'm just looking for interesting stories that fit this audience.

We brought on an expert to help explain Auburn

A few weeks ago, Bryan and I did a Going For Two with Mark Ennis to dig deep into the Louisville athletic department....why the place seems like it can't go two weeks without stepping on some sort of rake, and why everything (good, bad, and very weird) always seems to happen there.

There are a few other athletic departments where everything seems to happen, all of the time. Another one is Auburn, who came THIS close to doing a football coaching search in the middle of February for uh, reasons.

I was up in the air for this one, but Bryan sat down with our old friend Justin Ferguson of the Auburn Observer. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or check out our Youtube Playlist to watch the video.

Among the topics discussed in this episode:

• How you can save 15% off your first order at Homefield Apparel by using promode EXTRAPOINTS

• How Auburn's presidential change will impact the athletic department

• Where on earth Auburn football is supposed to go from here

• How Auburn's ag and engineering background shapes the fanbase and perceptions of the department

• How a school that is always doing something still manages to win so many games in so many other sports

• and more!

Going For Two is the free podcast of Extra Points, which drops every Wednesday. You can find it via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.

If you enjoy the show, liking, subscribing, and sharing with your friends is very much appreciated.

We also spoke to the Executive Director of CoSIDA

Earlier this week, for Collegiate Sports Connect (you can sign up! It's free!), I spoke to Doug Vance, the Executive Director for CoSIDA, the largest professional organization of college Sports Information professionals. We talked about how the role of a SID is changing, how COVID and NIL have shifted media access rules, and more:

I also spoke to Julie Roe Lach, the Commissioner of the Horizon League, about where the league plans to go from here after a public and uh, acrimonious breakup with UIC.

In addition to the Going For Two podcasts, I am generally producing two-three video interviews on CSC each week, and my colleagues (including Bryan) are producing even more. Feel free to sign up for an account so you can see all of oru video content, as soon as possible.

Extra Points paid subscribers also got to read the following:

I spoke to Troy linebacker Carlton Martial about his journey from walk-on to All-Sun Belt, and about how his photography work this summer will help make sure Troy is depicted in the next EA Sports College Football video game.

We also have more coverage of NIL Collectives , as well as updates on who the OVC will be adding in the coming days (and where the conference hopes to go from here).

You can support Extra Points by upgrading to a full subscription. Your subscriptions pay for me to fly out to interview university presidents, pay freelancers, create videos, and do original reporting. Full subscribers get five newsletters a week, some free stickers, and access to our Discord:

We also have open ad inventory for March. Each free edition of Extra Points reaches over 9,000 college sports fans, ADs, reporters, professors, conference offices and others who passionately care about this industry. You can buy an ad slot in two newsletters for as little as $250. Reach out to [email protected] for more info.

Thanks for reading everybody. I'll see you on the internet. Or maybe at the Grand Canyon baseball game tonight. We'll see!

To sponsor a future Extra Points newsletter, please email [email protected]. For article ideas, newsletter feedback, FOIA tips, athlete NIL sponsorships and more, I'm at [email protected], or @MattBrownEP on Twitter. Extra Points can be found on Reddit at /r/extrapointsmb