Jake Paul has spent $39M for a massive Georgia ranch — ‘I wanted a place where I can wakesurf, hunt and build a racetrack'
Jake Paul, the YouTube star-turned-prizefighter, has just picked up a sprawling piece of Southern sporting history.
The 27-year-old paid $39 million for a roughly 5,653-acre ranch in Georgia's Decatur County known as Southlands, in what brokers say is one of the largest recreational land deals in the state's history, according to a press release.
The property, which came to market in October for $42.5 million, hadn't been publicly offered for nearly 90 years.
Paul discussed the purchase earlier this month on 'The Iced Coffee Hour' podcast, revealing he used the bulk of his roughly $30 million earnings from his 2024 boxing match against heavyweight legend Mike Tyson to fund the acquisition.
'It's always been a dream of mine,' Paul said. 'I've wanted to buy a ranch for the last 15 years.'
Set roughly 8 miles from Bainbridge, the plantation is a rare find in Georgia's quail belt.
In addition to wild quail, the estate is home to trophy white-tail deer and features a variety of natural amenities, including 5 miles of spring-fed creeks, a stocked lake, a duck pond, a 60-acre irrigated field and direct frontage on Lake Seminole. Less than 3% of the land is wetlands.
Jon Kohler of Jon Kohler & Associates, who co-listed the property with Walter Hatchett, likened the significance of the sale to owning a sports franchise.
'Southlands is an institution; it's like owning your own professional football team,' Kohler told Mansion Global. 'You get history, culture and traditions, and you're a land steward dictating its future.'
The ranch includes a recently renovated 4,884-square-foot main lodge with eight bedrooms, five full bathrooms and one half bath.
The grounds also hold a collection of updated and new outbuildings, including a four-stall barn for horseback and quail hunting, a manager's house and guesthouse, a pavilion, an equipment shed, a workshop and a cooler facility for game processing.
Southlands was previously owned by Brian Philpot, CEO and principal owner of AgAmerica Lending, which specializes in agricultural loans. Philpot acquired the property in 2023 through a private transaction; the price was not disclosed.
For Paul, who recalled spending time at a cabin with his father as a child, the purchase is about more than luxury.
'I wanted a place where I can wakesurf, hunt and build a racetrack,' he said on the podcast.
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It's terribly sad for Oregon State and Washington State, which previously received $30 million-plus from the old Pac-12 (including postseason revenue). I still think Boise State, San Diego State, et al, made the right move getting out of the Mountain West, which had a low ceiling revenue-wise and dragged down their schools' football schedules. But whereas initially the new-look league figured to be an obvious upgrade, momentum stalled when the new Pac-12 failed to land the likes of Memphis and Tulane (or even UNLV). Texas State, likely to be the eighth school, is fine but doesn't move the needle. And CFP access doesn't much change for the former MWC schools. It will still be a near-annual tussle with the AAC for the last AQ. Poor San Diego State. Two years ago, it truly believed it was about to get an invite to a then-Power 5 conference. But I suppose it could be worse. At least a few of its games will be on CBS. In an alternate timeline, they're all on Apple+. Advertisement Not a question, just a request. When you discuss schedules, please don't just write 'Week 1' or 'Week 2' or so on. Please also indicate the dates of the weekend. Some of us can't calculate in our heads whether 'Week 9' is mid-October or late-November. — Mike C. Good suggestion. I should have done that in last week's week-by-week travel challenge. FWIW, the first November games this season are in Week 11. And one of them is UMass at Akron. Stew, I'm sure you saw Arkansas take yet another gut-punch loss in Omaha. That's eight College World Series trips in the last 20 years with no titles, while seemingly everyone else in the SEC wins one. Who is the current most tortured college football fan base that keeps suffering wrenching losses while their rivals have success? — HB in Dallas 'Gut punch' is putting it mildly. What phrase can truly do justice to a shortstop neglecting to turn a game-sealing double play, then the left fielder dropping a liner he's probably caught a million times, allowing the opponent to score two runs and tie it, then losing on a hit that went off the second baseman's glove? Here's the double play ball that would've ended the game. Not much of a question if they would've turned two if you ask me… Regardless, why not try? No reason to get the lead runner up 2 runs Tough 9th inning here for Arkansas — Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) June 19, 2025 The closest thing in football may be Michigan's dropped punt snap to lose against Michigan State a decade ago. Nebraska fans have got to be the most tortured. Not because the Huskers keep coming close but because they keep staying mediocre, no matter how many promising, exciting hires and recruits come their way. Penn State has had a lot of top-10 seasons with no prize to show for it, but it's not like the Nittany Lions have a long history of Drew Allar-dagger-interception-in-the-Orange Bowl moments. So I give the nod to Texas A&M. A brief recap of the Aggies' past decade: • Kevin Sumlin and Johnny Manziel tease the fan base into thinking the Aggies are about to run the SEC with one dreamy season in 2012, only for Sumlin to go 8-5 (almost) every year and eventually get ousted. Advertisement • Jimbo Fisher comes in to save the day, gets an empty plaque to enshrine his inevitable next national championship, produces a top-five season in his third year, then proceeds to go 10-13 in the SEC from there. • Texas gets into the SEC over A&M's objections, ridding Aggies fans of the one thing they'd been able to lord over their Horns fan friends. • A&M goes into its first Texas game in 13 years with a chance to reach its first-ever SEC Championship Game, only to lose 17-7, end the season on a three-game losing streak and finish unranked. Also: • Texas A&M reaches the 2024 Men's College World Series championship series, loses, and then Texas steals its coach the next day. • The Aggies' softball team earns the No. 1 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament, only to get knocked out by Liberty in the opening Regional. After writing all that … yeah, there's really no close second. What should reasonable expectations be for Nebraska this season? Am I crazy for thinking Nebraska has the potential for a dark horse CFP bid, between transfers, what appears to be a manageable schedule and Matt Rhule's history of big Year 3s. Am I making the same mistake as previous years and believing this will finally be the year Nebraska is back on track for a top 25 team? — Phillip M., Omaha, Neb. I am sure Nebraska will make the CFP at some point — if Indiana can, surely Nebraska can — but I will be the last person to declare it happens in 2025. At this point, that would be like sticking your hand in the oven, getting burned, sticking your hand in the oven again, getting burned even worse, then sticking your hand and foot in the oven at the same time. (Please don't let the physics involved in that analogy get in the way of the point of the analogy.) But after the Huskers finally got to 6-6 last season (for the first time since 2016) and then won the bowl, there's no excuse why they can't get to at least 8-4 this year. Especially if sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola makes the customary strides after his up-and-down freshman season. Win a bowl again, and that's a Top-25 season. Advertisement As you said, Rhule's teams made similar jumps in his third season at both Temple (from 6-6 to 10-4) and Baylor (from 7-6 to 11-3). Back then, he was the master of the slow and steady rebuild. Roster construction looks a lot different today, but Nebraska had a sneaky-good portal class, ranked No. 13 by 247Sports. Guard Rocco Spindler (Notre Dame) is a plug-and-play starter, receiver Nyziah Hunter (Cal) was an impressive freshman last season and linebacker Marques Watson-Trent (Georgia Southern) was the 2024 Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year. Perhaps most notably, though, Rhule is now all in on OC Dana Holgorsen, who took over play-calling duties late last season. His track record as an offensive coach speaks for itself. On paper, Nebraska's schedule is very manageable. Cincinnati is its only notable nonconference opponent. It has five conference home games, and three of the road games are Maryland, Minnesota and UCLA. But Scott Frost had some manageable-on-paper schedules as well. Nothing is a given in Lincoln. I feel awful for the fans who are living through this era of CFB. When the media gathers at the local watering hole, is there any sense that maybe the fans shouldn't have known better, but that the media should have with NIL and expanding the Playoff? — James E J. Reading comments/questions like these, you'd think college football is in the Great Depression, not a period of instability and transition that has yet to negatively affect the actual on-field product. But I digress … I accept that those of us with a platform have the ability to influence public opinion on various matters. And I've made it clear since at least 2011, when I covered a Michigan game and saw Denard Robinson's jersey on sale in every Ann Arbor storefront, that players should be able to profit off their own NIL. But I do not wield nearly the degree of power as a federal judge or the United States Supreme Court. I get that many college sports fans are wistful for The Way It Was. I'd remind you that The Way It Was turned out to be illegal. On multiple occasions, in multiple venues across the political spectrum, amateurism was deemed a big stinking antitrust violation. Starting with Judge Claudia Wilken, who ruled against the NCAA in the O'Bannon and Alston cases and presided over House. Having sat in her courtroom, I feel confident in saying she has likely never read a single sports column in her life. The NCAA (which is its members) is solely to blame for the current mess of things. At any point in the last 20 years or so, it could have proactively established a sensible system by which the athletes could be compensated without affecting their eligibility. Instead, it fought to the death to preserve the strictest possible definition of amateurism, all the way to the Supreme Court, which, by the time it lost that one 9-0, was too late to institute any meaningful form of regulations. So here we are. Advertisement As for the College Football Playoff, it was always going to expand at some point, because it was five conferences competing for four spots and someone always got left out. The writing was on the wall as soon as the Big Ten got left out in back-to-back seasons, 2017 and '18. Within weeks of 12-1 Ohio State missing that second year, Jim Delany went on record saying he was open to expansion. Away we went. Personally, I remained in favor of four for many years, but ultimately changed my mind upon seeing two developments: star players opting out of the non-CFP bowl games, thus devaluing 90 percent of the postseason, and all the fan complaints about the same small number of teams — Alabama, Clemson, etc, — dominating the event. More and more of the country felt left out. In fact, The Athletic conducted a fan survey in May 2021 asking readers' opinions about possible expansion, and 83 percent said the CFP should expand. But these days, I mostly hear from the other 17 percent. What will be the long-term impact of the College Sports Commission on the future role of the NCAA in managing college football? — Louis M. The NCAA has never truly managed college football. Nor has anyone else.
