By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Just 26 days after retiring from the Philadelphia Phillies organization as an outfielder prospect, quarterback Cord Sandberg officially committed Monday to join the Auburn Tigers football program.
“I’m very excited. It was a very humbling experience retiring from baseball, and talking with coaches and having them have an interest in me to come and try to help their football program win games was very cool," Sandberg told Inside The Auburn Tigers.
Sandberg, 23, was drafted in the third round of the 2013 amateur draft out of Manatee High School. A former high school quarterback, Sandberg forwent a scholarship to play at Mississippi State, despite logging 79 touchdowns and just eight interceptions spanning 627 passing attempts.
The Bradenton, Florida, native will now get the opportunity to play collegiate football after all.
Absolutely humbled to have been given the opportunity to pursue a childhood dream of mine. After some visits and a lot of prayer I’m excited to announce I’m officially an Auburn Tiger! Fired up and ready to get to work! #WarEagle 🦅 @AuburnFootball pic.twitter.com/ot49iTRW9c
— Cord Sandberg (@sandberg_cord) July 30, 2018
MLBPipeline.com ranked Sandberg, 23, as the Phillies' 22nd-best prospect in 2015. Sandberg ended his professional baseball career with just two singles over his last 21 plate appearances. Overall in 56 games at Double-A Reading in 2018, the six-year minor-leaguer slashed .231/.271/.314 with seven extra-base hits and 11 RBI.
Read: Retired Phillies Prospect Sandberg: Pursuit of MLB Career 'Not Worth Rolling the Dice'
"I’m very excited to give everything I have to keep Auburn football where it’s at because obviously Auburn football was awesome before me," Sandberg said. "I’m going to do what I can to continue the tradition of Auburn football. It’s going to be amazing long after I’m gone, so I’m really blessed to have the chance to be a part of something great there at Auburn.”
Inside The Auburn Tigers writes how Sandberg fits within the Auburn program:
With just three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, the addition of Sandberg is another option for Lindsey heading into the 2018 season. While Jarrett Stidham is the unquestioned guy at the position and leader of the offense, the battle to be the next guy at Auburn hasn’t even begun.
Getting Sandberg on campus should create more competition this fall for the second-team spot and when Bo Nix arrives on campus in January there will be a true battle for the position in the spring. When you’re able to add a player of this caliber, who also brings worldly experience because of his minor league baseball days, you take advantage of it. That’s exactly what Auburn did and it could be one of the biggest additions to the 2018 class when all is said and done.
Sandberg also visited North Carolina State and Louisiana State prior to his Monday commitment.
