A Look at Auburn's (Relatively) Easy Schedule

The preseason AP Top 25 poll saw the inclusion of many SEC teams, with squads from the conference taking 10 of the 25 spots. As a result, many SEC teams face some extremely difficult schedules in 2025. However, some teams got luckier, including the Auburn Tigers.

Auburn has to face just four teams on the preseason Top 25, tied with Tennessee and Missouri for the least in the conference.

Every other SEC team plays at least five teams on the preseason poll, with Florida, LSU, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma all drawing seven of the Top 25 teams. So, the Tigers clearly have an opportunity in 2025. The question is, can they take it?

Well, to do so, Auburn will need to beat teams it’s expected to beat. The Tigers struggled to do so in 2024, mainly thanks to turnover struggles and an abysmal red zone offense. The hiccups led to home losses to California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt, all of whom finished 2024 with a 6-6 record.

The most pivotal stretch of the Tigers’ schedule from the “take care of business” aspect is a four-game stretch of Missouri at home, Arkansas on the road, Kentucky at home and Vanderbilt on the road. Though none of those teams have been automatic wins for Auburn in recent years, they need to be in 2025 if Head Coach Hugh Freeze is serious about his team’s playoff aspirations.

SEC teams that make the College Football Playoff would easily go 4-0 in that stretch, and Auburn needs to strive to do the same. While playoff hopefuls like Florida, LSU, and South Carolina are slogging through week after week of ranked teams, that friendly stretch gives Auburn the chance it needs to leapfrog over those other teams in both the SEC standings and the playoff rankings.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, they drew three of their four ranked opponents in three consecutive games, though not three consecutive weeks. Auburn travels to Oklahoma on Sept 20, Texas A&M on Sept. 27, and hosts Georgia in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Oct. 11. 

Again, if the Tigers are serious about College Football Playoff contention, they should target at least a 2-1 record across those three games. However, 1-2 might be ok if Auburn can win the Iron Bowl at the end of the season.

A deceivingly tough game for the Tigers is the season opener against Baylor. The Bears just missed out on a preseason ranking, amassing the third-most votes of any unranked team with 132. That game will be pivotal for early-season momentum, but I wouldn’t call it a must-win. 

Baylor is a strong contender to win the Big 12 this season, and if Auburn can finish 9-3 with losses to two ranked SEC teams and the eventual Big 12 Champion, that would still place the Tigers in strong contention for a playoff spot. 

Auburn also needs to hope that the rest of the SEC cannibalizes itself. If teams like Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Texas A&M can all take wins off each other while Auburn finishes at 9-3, the Tigers could easily be looking at a fourth-place finish in the SEC behind Texas, Georgia, and Alabama, even if Auburn loses both rivalry games once again.

However, if Auburn were to win one or both of its rivalry games and then take care of business vs unranked SEC teams, the Tigers could very well find themselves at 10-2 or better and squarely in the SEC Championship hunt. 

Games such as Texas at Georgia and Alabama at Georgia will also be crucial in determining the seeding at the end of the year, and Tiger fans should hope for as much parity among the top teams as possible. 

The more the top teams beat each other, the wider the door opens for an Auburn team that, for once, has drawn one of the easiest schedules in college football’s toughest conference.

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