John Cohen will be staying in Auburn at least through 2029, according to a contract extension signed on May 2 and obtained by AL.com through a public records request.

Cohen has full intentions of being at Auburn for the long term after leaving the athletic director position at Mississippi State, his alma mater, in late 2022. Cohen’s wife Nelle previously said the two Tuscaloosa natives had talked about retiring in Auburn long before Cohen became the athletic director here.

“When I turned 50 years old, Nelle and I are like, ‘Okay, we’re both from Tuscaloosa. When it’s all said and done, and hopefully it’s a long time from now, where would we retire,’” Cohen said in an interview with AL.com. “And I really thought about it, and I said, ‘How about Auburn?’ And she said, ‘Why Auburn?’ And I said, ‘Well the Atlanta airport is right there. The Gulf of Mexico is three-and-a-half hours away. It’s an easy drive. It’s a great town. It’s a great golfing community. They have a remarkable public school system, even when our kids are grown. It has always just stuck out to me as a wonderful place. We had talked about Auburn well before this opportunity to come available.”

Cohen added, “I don’t want to live anywhere else.”

Retirement is far off in the future. Cohen is just 57 years old now. But it’s a contract and commitment to Auburn after about 18 months in this job.

In that time, Cohen has hired a new football head coach and women’s tennis head coach. He has overseen and directed a preivously approved baseball stadium renovation while putting his own touches on it. He has made some of the most significant steps toward replacing the north endzone scorebaord at Jordan-Hare Stadium and helped negotiate Auburn’s new apparel deal with Nike.

Cohen described his first year at Auburn has if he were a freshman trying to figure out his way around town and what the school needed in his view. Now, he understandably feels to have a much stronger handle.

“I have had the great privilege of living in a lot of SEC cities, and I think Auburn is certainly at the at the very top,” Cohen said.

Long term goals Cohen still has include the expansion of premium seating options across Auburn’s athletic venues including a complete renovation of the Jordan-Hare Stadium north endzone stands into an expanded and enhanced mezzanine.

Throughout his first year at Auburn and into the beginning of his second, Cohen described the second year and beyond as being progressively more productive as he finds greater comfort with the framework of Auburn.

He’ll have time now. He isn’t going anywhere.

“I feel extremely privileged to be a part of Auburn,” Cohen said. “Very grateful for the for the embrace that I’ve gotten from all the stakeholders involved. And you know, we have a lot of work to do, fully aware of that, but excited about the direction.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]