Jay Jacobs wants to make one thing perfectly clear. The Auburn Tigers are not copycats.

The Auburn AD is very much aware that his biggest rival is finishing its second major expansion in the last four years, that Bryant-Denny Stadium now looks like Jordan-Hare on HGH.

But if you're waiting for Auburn to follow Alabama's lead, don't hold your breath until you turn blue. Or orange.

"We're not going to increase our capacity just because someone else is increasing their capacity," Jacobs said. "We're going to do what's best for us."

Don't get the wrong idea. While the heavy equipment has been working overtime in Tuscaloosa, Auburn officials haven't been dozing. They're not content simply to rest on their reputation as the people that brought you Tiger Walk and the eagle's flight.

They could. As Jacobs pointed out, there's a difference between the size of your stadium and the quality of your game-day experience. There are bigger college football stadiums than Jordan-Hare, but do any of them put on a better show?

"There's no game-day atmosphere anywhere that I've ever been like ours," Jacobs said. "We're going to continue to lead the industry in that area because that's something we started doing before anyone else did."

That said, a lot of people believe bigger equals better, and Jacobs can see a day when Auburn will need more seats in its football stadium. Before you laugh, remember that he saw Gene Chizik as a winning head coach long before there was tangible evidence on his side.

So, last October, Jacobs hired Pieper Sports Facility Consulting of Overland Park, Kan., to do a master design for Jordan-Hare Stadium. The idea: Look at everything, he said, "and not just the seats. The lettermen's lounge. The recruiting section. The scoreboards. Other amenities."

"What we want to do is be proactive and not reactive," Jacobs said. "We want to be ready to go when it's time to go. What I mean by that is, we get a couple years like we used to have prior to 2008 where we sell out tickets from the ticket priority standpoint, then your supply is beginning to exceed your demand.

"It'll be time to expand or add additional seating."

Allow me to translate. Auburn's investment in Chizik has to pay dividends first before the really big spending starts.

Jacobs got an update from the consultant in May and expects another in the coming months. When it's finished, the master plan will tell him just how many seats Jordan-Hare can hold.

Schools like to study what other schools are doing when it comes to facilities, and Auburn is no different. As part of the work on this master plan, Jacobs said, Auburn officials visited eight to 12 other stadiums in the last six months to see what might work on the Plain.

Among those site visits: Clemson, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Texas, Texas A&M and Tennessee. Among Jim Pieper of Pieper Sports Facility Consulting's previous clients: Tennessee, Florida and Iowa.

Oh and Texas Tech. Before Tommy Tuberville got there. Naturally.

"So we're pulling all this (information) together and saying, 'You know what? We've got 25 things here we're going to do over the next 10 years.' Hypothetically. Could be five years, could be 25," Jacobs said.

"When the time is right for Auburn to expand, we will have a plan in place that we can take to the board and the president. ... That plan is a living document. It could change at any time."

The one thing that can't change is the positive momentum generated by Chizik and company through one season and two recruiting classes. Jacobs pointed out that there are only 33 players left on the roster from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 recruiting classes.

"We're still a couple of years away from having a 2004 team," Jacobs said.

It's all supply and demand. An undefeated season doesn't come along very often. Concrete seats, filled or empty, are forever.