Courtside Career

Watching Auburn sports teams navigate through each season is an exciting experience for all Tiger fans, but having a courtside seat to the action like Taylor Korn ’22 makes it even more exhilarating. Korn is the director of social media for The Next Round, a fast-growing sports podcast based out of Birmingham, Ala. focused on covering the Southeastern Conference.

At Auburn, Korn began her journey as a student with the intention of attending dental school. Although she grew up in a sports-loving family and played soccer her entire life, Korn didn’t pursue a career in sports in the beginning because she “didn’t realize how much opportunity there was.”

“I started realizing there is so much more than what you see on TV,” said Korn. “There is so much more behind the scenes that I didn’t realize or never had thought about before.”

Korn decided to change her major to marketing with the hopes of getting a job in sports after graduating, and was meticulous in her job search as she hunted for the right position in the sports world.

“I told my parents I really don’t want to just apply for everything that I see on LinkedIn or wherever I’m looking, I want to wait until I see something that actually interests me so that I’m not miserable after graduation,” said Korn. “I actually ended up talking to the guys that I work with now through a connection to my Auburn roommate.”

Korn said the opportunity at the podcasting company The Next Round fell into her lap. Now in her third year, she says working for the podcast company “is her dream job.”

While the main show airs from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, Korn is actively pulling recorded clips of the live podcast to edit for social media. She then goes on to create graphics of game predictions, intriguing statistics, and score predictions that viewers are most interested in.

“Figuring out how to present things and what resources are out there to make sure you are reaching the people you are trying to reach is important,” said Korn.

In 2024, The Next Round had a combined total of more than 215 million social media impressions from Instagram, Facebook, X and Tik Tok. The Next Round on Facebook currently has 80,000 followers, with their X account also picking up growth at 25,000 followers.

Korn credits a few skills she learned at Auburn during her social media marketing course to the momentum gained on TNR’s social media accounts.

“Auburn introduced me to resources that I wouldn’t have had otherwise,” said Korn. “The method behind the madness is strategizing the way you post things, search engine optimization, and the things you don’t think about when using social media as an individual, and more so how a company can use it.”

Although Korn’s main responsibility is keeping up with TNR’s socials, her job entails much more than just posting on social media. To cover the action in real time, she travels to almost all of Auburn’s football and men’s basketball home games.

For Auburn football gamedays, Korn goes around Auburn’s campus through the sea of white tailgating tents, getting content and performing “man on the street” interviews for fan involvement. When gametime arrives, she is at work on the Jordan-Hare sidelines taking photos and videos that are later incorporated in the recorded podcast video.

After games, Korn joins the press conferences to get information on hot topics and ask players questions about the game.

“It’s an in-the-moment industry,” said Korn. “A lot of it is super time sensitive, so it is kind of a race against time, especially if there’s an unexpected, out-of-pocket comment.”

During Auburn basketball season, Korn’s schedule is similar to football other than doing one show a week with one of TNR’s hosts, Jim Dunaway, for a weekly recap. A major moment in Korn’s career thus far was covering Auburn men’s basketball team win the 2024 SEC Tournament championship.

“I got to see that through a different lens,” Korn said. “It was cool to be able to witness something like that standing on the court and then going into the locker room after and getting to talk to the players. I’ve witnessed excitement from Auburn teams from a fan perspective, but from a work perspective that was probably the coolest moment.”

As Korn continues this “non-traditional” career path, she aspires to expand her coverage by “traveling to different stadiums, arenas and venues in the SEC.

“I’m glad that what I ended up doing for work gives me a chance to go back to Auburn,” said Korn.

By Mallorie McCoy ’24