Nowadays, Evan Thomas likes to refer to Nashville as “Auburn North.”
And it makes sense for the President of the Greater Nashville Auburn Club. Thousands of Auburn alumni and fans made their way to Nashville just four weeks ago when Auburn played at Vanderbilt. They’ll be coming right back as the Auburn football team was selected to play in the Music City Bowl against Maryland, the bowl announced Sunday.
“If you could insert an emoji with the crazy eyes, that’s kind of how I feel,” Thomas told AL.com on Sunday afternoon.
The bowl game is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30, and will be played at Nissan Stadium — the home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
Thomas was selected as the Club’s president in 2019 after moving to Nashville in 2018 to work in real estate. At that time — just after Auburn’s last Music City Bowl appearance in 2018 — Thomas said the Club was in dire need of better organization to fit a large city like Nashville with a large alumni base.
It is estimated around 6,000 Auburn alumni live in the greater Nashville area.
Thomas said he’s seen the Club expand greatly during his time as president, and said it is now regarded as a “torch bearer” among Auburn alumni groups.
“We’ve been able to move the needle quite effectively here in Nashville and it’s been really neat to kind of build this thing,” Thomas said. “We were able to give it an orange and blue blood transfusion.”
And after years of building the foundation for the Club’s current state, he’ll get a second football game in one season.
“Given how close we are to Auburn, our fans tend to travel well. And they really love coming to Nashville,” Thomas said. “We had over 1,000 people at Tiger Walk back when Auburn played Vanderbilt in basketball in February. You see the impact that the Auburn fan base had here for the football game against Vanderbilt. Now that we’re poised and positioned to be able to host Auburn again, in the middle of the holidays, at a time where people are available and looking to travel, we look forward to being able to provide an experience that’s on brand with what our local fans and family and then also our traveling fans and family have come to expect us. Yeah, we’re pumped.”
Thomas said he and other Club executives closely watched bowl projections once it became clear Auburn had a chance to end up in Nashville. He paid attention with excitement, hoping he might get a chance to see his alma mater in his city once again this year.
He had a graphic made to post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in celebration if Auburn was picked for Nashville. He was so ready, in fact, that his post came out before Auburn’s own tweet from the football team’s account.
Auburn fans and alumni like Thomas took over an entire half of Vanderbilt’s stadium during Auburn’s win there this season, all wearing orange. Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze and players said after the game it felt as if they were playing at home.
A committee member with the Music City Bowl told AL.com in the days leading up to the selection that they saw Auburn as a good fit because of the driveability for Auburn fans as well as the fact that they too paid attention to the strong showing of Auburn fans at Vanderbilt this year.
Thomas said that the Club, a volunteer group, spent a significant amount of time planning a tailgate for the Vanderbilt football game. This time, though, Thomas will have the help of Auburn’s planned events in conjunction with the Music City Bowl. Thomas said there is more funding from Auburn and its alumni association expected to come for events at the bowl game compared to the Vanderbilt game due to the larger expected turnout and exposure.
The exact event schedule is still to be determined. Auburn has plans for an event in downtown Nashville on the eve of the game, but has not yet announced specific plans.
The Music City Bowl may be Auburn’s biggest trip to Nashville planned this year, it is just added to the list of a slew of Auburn games there still to come. Auburn men’s basketball plays at Vanderbilt on Jan. 17. Auburn women’s basketball plays at Vanderbilt the next day. The SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament is in March at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Auburn baseball opens SEC play in March at Vanderbilt.
“We’re a volunteer organization,” Thomas said. “I mean, it takes a lot out of us to be able to host Auburn well up here. So we’re both nervous and excited because that’s a lot of hosting, planning and organization and bandwidth. We always rise to the occasion and are looking forward to being able to host Auburn for the Music City Bowl and all the other athletic events that are coming up in the coming months.”
Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com
