SEC Basketball Schedule Released

The much anticipated Auburn Basketball Schedule was released Friday morning by the SEC. Auburn will once again play 18 SEC games, including 9 at Auburn Arena. This is a breakdown of Auburn’s SEC Opponents this year. Auburn plays 5 teams home-and-home while playing 4 teams at home only, and the other 4 on the road only.

Home & Home: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss

Home Only: Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee

Road Only: LSU, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Vanderbilt

As you can see, Auburn has a lot of quality opponents coming to Auburn Arena this upcoming season. Most of the home games also take place on Saturdays as well to make it easier for fans to come to these games. Auburn will play 5 Saturday Home Games, 3 Wednesday Home Games and 1 Tuesday Home Game this year.

The SEC season kicks off January 9th at Ole Miss with the home opener taking place Saturday January 12 against Georgia. Following a trip to Texas A&M on January 16, Auburn will host one of its biggest home games in basketball history as Kentucky comes to town on Saturday, January 19.

With both teams expected to be in the Top 10 preseason, this will be a highly anticipated matchup and perhaps College Gameday (the basketball version) will make its first trip to the Plains for that matchup. Auburn has won each of its last 2 games against Kentucky in Auburn Arena including a 76-66 decision on Valentine’s Day this past season. After Kentucky, Auburn has a pair of road games at South Carolina (January 22) and Mississippi State (January 26).

After a week on the road, the Tigers will have a 3 game homestand beginning with Missouri on Wednesday, January 30. Another highly anticipated matchup occurs on Saturday, February 2 when Alabama comes to town. Auburn beat Alabama 90-71 here last year but lost its other 2 matchups to the Tide. Then on Tuesday February 5, the Florida Gators come to Auburn Arena for the teams only matchup of the season. Auburn has lost 11 straight against Florida and 21 of their last 22 meetings overall. On Saturday, February 9th the Tigers travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU in a matchup of elite point guards Jared Harper and Tremont Waters. The Tigers return home Wednesday February 13th against Ole Miss.

Last season, Auburn broke a lot of losing streaks on opponents home floors (Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee) and Auburn will break to break another long losing streak at an opposing arena on Saturday February 16th when the Tigers travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt. The Razorbacks will come calling on February 20 in Auburn before a second matchup with Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Saturday February 23rd. Auburn has not won in Lexington since January 9, 1988.

Following Kentucky, Auburn makes the return trip to Athens on Wednesday February 27th before welcoming Mississippi State on Saturday March 2nd. The final week of the season will be quite daunting for the Tigers. Auburn travels to Tuscaloosa on Tuesday March 5th to take on Alabama before wrapping up the season here in Auburn on Saturday March 9th against the team Auburn “shared” the SEC Regular Season Championship with in Tennessee.

Auburn is putting the finishing touches on its non-conference schedule but so far we know that the Tigers will host South Alabama, Washington (November 9), Dayton (December 8), Murray State (December 22) and North Florida (December 29), play UAB at the BJCC in Birmingham (December 15), travel to N.C. State (December 19) and of course, participate in the Maui Invitational November 19-21 where after playing Xavier, they could meet the likes of Duke, Gonzaga and Arizona later in the tournament. All in all, Bruce Pearl’s Tigers will face a very challenging schedule as they look to defend last year’s SEC Regular Season Championship. Don’t look now, but basketball season will be here before we know it. War Eagle!