Auburn baseball’s 2025 season was influenced by another campus team the Harbert College of Business

Auburn baseball’s 2025 team drew a single-season attendance record of 201,703 fans to watch it play, and it was a majority of Harbert College of Business majors on the team leading the way.

More than half of Auburn’s 40-man roster this past season listed as their major one of the business programs at Harbert, and current and former players alike say there are many similar qualities in learning the game of baseball and the profession of business.

“I chose Business Management because I’m interested in how companies run and what makes them successful,” said starting centerfielder Bristol Carter. “I like the idea of leading teams, solving problems, and making smart decisions that help a business grow. It’s a practical major with a lot of career options.”

Carter plans to graduate in 2027 and hopes to somehow apply his business education to staying involved with baseball. But Carter is one of several examples on Auburn’s team who already has shown his talents outside the diamond. The sophomore was named to the 2025 Southeastern Conference Community Service Team.

Players making a difference

Carter spearheaded a fundraising campaign benefiting the patients of Children’s of Alabama for the entirety of the 2025 season, and he did so in partnership with senior pitcher John Armstrong, also a Harbert business major, and with the support of other members of the team.

Carter, Armstrong and teammates used their business skills to help raise more than $5,000 benefitting Children’s of Alabama throughout the season, and they plan to continue their efforts into next year.

“I like Harbert because it gives us real experience and helps with finding jobs after college. Auburn in general just has a great community and everyone’s friendly and it feels like home,” said Carter, a New Hampshire native. “Baseball has taught me discipline, teamwork, and how to stay focused under pressure. It also helped me learn how to deal with failure and keep improving. Those are skills that are important in any business career.”

He pointed to several other comparisons, such as the game’s fixation on keeping statistics for almost everything, but being more than numbers. “Baseball’s not all about stats, and business kind of is. In both, you use numbers to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve. It makes sense to look at things that way, it helps you stay sharp and make better decisions.”

Carter also noted how the Harbert business majors on the team work together to do homework. “We pick each other’s brains about certain assignments, or if we ever need help with something related, we work together,” he said. “Business is a solid degree with a lot of options, but it takes discipline.”

The business of baseball

Greg Drye, Auburn baseball’s director of operations and a longtime assistant in various roles to Head Coach Butch Thompson, knows a thing or two himself about transitioning from a player, as he was back in the day at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and then Baylor, to a business manager still involved with baseball.

“The game will not be played forever. Hopefully, players will have a job opportunity later in life that has structure and direction, and I think if they have that in sports it will make the transition to having a family and working for a paycheck a bit smoother,” Drye said.

The players on the team majoring in business at Harbert will take a variety of skills with them from the field to the office, said Drye, who like Carter listed several, including organization and relationship-building traits.

“All sports must have some sort of organization to have the chance to be successful. Time is the most important aspect of our day. Organizational flow and planning are one the most important parts of my job from a daily practice plan to a travel day to play on the weekend,” he said. “Everything must be mapped out because we only have a certain amount of time that we can practice or do any type of sports-related activity. If we are not planned and people are not pointed in a direction or can have a responsibility, we cannot function.”

That same mindset must go to any business organization, he said, as does the process of building trust and dependability.

“We stress daily the person sitting to the right and left of you matters more than anything. If you have that thought process of not letting the person down next to you, we hope that will make a difference,” Drye said.

The real stars of the show?

A day at Plainsman Park, home of the Auburn Tigers baseball team, reveals many connections to Harbert College of Business, including the college’s role as a supportive sponsor by being recognized on the scoreboard and on other signs around the park.

There also are business success stories to be found with their roots in Harbert, such as one of the most popular eateries inside the stadium, Holloway Bar-B-Que.

“We do well when the team does well, and it’s been a very good year,” said a smiling Rommeo Holloway, who throughout the season with his wife Kimberly, along with various friends and family members, manned two stations selling barbeque sandwiches, barbeque nachos, and a fan favorite: the Holloway Happy Dog, a hot dog made of Conecuh sausage topped with a pile of barbeque and special sauce.

The lines often were long from customers eager to try the ballpark cuisine.

“Yep, I come to a lot of games hungry just so I can have one of his Happy Dogs!” said an exuberant fan waiting in line. His wife prefers the nachos.

Holloway’s ties to Harbert involve his entrepreneurial training at New Venture Accelerator, a program jointly managed by the business college and the Auburn Research and Technology Foundation  to help aspiring business owners get their start. 

“Starting out, there are a lot of things you don’t know, and the workshops helped a lot,” Kimberly Holloway said, ticking off a to-do list that included formulating a business plan, building a website, obtaining all of the licenses required, and attending a tax workshop.

“Harbert was very good for us,” her husband said. “We learned a lot from Harbert’s programs to help people like us get started, and from Harbert’s resources, and from the university in general. We love Auburn and Auburn people. They are great.”

Auburn’s baseball venue is the best place to meet and chat with the Holloways, but don’t worry if you missed them and their barbeque during the recently concluded baseball season. They also serve at Jordan-Hare Stadium during football season, and in Neville Arena for basketball and gymnastics, and they frequently operate a food truck on campus.

And before the next time you hear “Play ball” at Plainsman Park, be sure to grab a Happy Dog, brought to you by Holloway Bar-B-Que... and indirectly by Auburn’s Harbert College of Business, which teaches that baseball and business play well together.

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