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The 2016 Auburn Football Schedule is out! Here is the complete schedule, now! Home games are capitalized. Away games are in lower case with "at" in front of them. So, it should be quite obvious.
| Date | Team |
| 3-Sep | CLEMSON |
| 10-Sep | ARKANSAS STATE |
| 17-Sep | TEXAS A&M |
| 24-Sep | LSU |
| 1-Oct | LOUISIANA-MONROE |
| 8-Oct | @ Mississippi State |
| 15-Oct | Open date |
| 22-Oct | ARKANSAS |
| 29-Oct | @ Ole Miss |
| 5-Nov | VANDERBILT |
| 12-Nov | @ Georgia |
| 19-Nov | ALABAMA A&M |
| 26-Nov | @ Alabama |
Analyzing the Schedule
You know, for having to play Georgia and Alabama on the road, this is about as easy a set-up as you could otherwise get. Unlike 2014, Auburn does not have to go play a Thursday night game on the road at a Power Five conference team. So, there are eight home games. Only four games on the road, and all are obviously the SEC games we've had at home this year. So, we go to the Mississippis and then to Georgia and Alabama.
The Mississippis have been much better in recent years, but that's still pretty good to have them be half of your road schedule. It's still going to be tough to close out the year in Athens and Tuscaloosa (with a home week against Alabama A&M sandwiched between).
For the home games, the Tigers start with five straight. That Clemson game is going to be tough right off the start. Especially when you look at how strong they've been this season, though . Win that one and it's a definite kick-start to the 2016 campaign. That's followed by Arkansas State and then the SEC schedule begins with Texas A&M. This will be the first year since the Aggies have been in the conference that Auburn plays them early.
After that it's LSU. I like them in this slot. LSU at home in the early season seems to be when we do the best against them, so this is fine. After that it's the annual Sun Belt foe, and then the Tigers travel to Mississippi State. The Tigers get an open date before welcoming BERT (assuming he's still there) and the Hawgs. After that it's on the road to Ole Miss, and home against this year's rotating SEC East foe in Vanderbilt.
So, Auburn gets eight home games, half of the road games are against the Mississippis, and possibly most important, the Tigers will never have a "road trip," as they never play back-to-back games on the road. With the rotating SEC East game being Vandy, that's about as easy a set-up as you can get when you have to go Georgia and Alabama at the end.