Auburn men's hoops opens SEC play at Georgia as full league slate revealed

AUBURN — Auburn men’s basketball will start conference play at Georgia on January 3, as they look to defend their third SEC regular season championship in the Bruce Pearl era.

SEC schedule dates were released on Wednesday. Here’s what things look like for the Tigers…

Jan. 3 — at Georgia
Jan. 6/7 — Texas A&M
Jan. 10 — Arkansas
Jan. 13/14 — at Missouri
Jan. 17 — South Carolina
Jan. 20/21 — at Ole Miss
Jan. 24 — at Florida
Jan. 27/28 — Texas
Jan. 31 — at Tennessee
Feb. 7 — Alabama
Feb. 10/11 — Vanderbilt
Feb. 14 — at Arkansas
Feb. 17/18 — at Mississippi State
Feb. 21 — Kentucky
Feb. 24/25 — at Oklahoma
Feb. 28 — Ole Miss
March 3/4 — LSU
March 7 — at Alabama

What stands out? How about Auburn’s stretch from January 20 through February 7? That could potentially be five straight Top 25 games, three on the road, with rival Alabama at home. The good news during that stretch is Auburn’s bye falls before Alabama.

The Tigers are fresh off going 15-3 in the most competitive season of SEC basketball in history. Auburn finished playing the 5th-hardest SEC schedule last season. No other SEC team that finished in the top 11 of the standings played a harder league schedule than Auburn per T-Rank analytics and Pearl and Co. still finished first.

This year’s schedule more difficult than last year’s?

Associate head coach Steven Pearl said this summer that the entire schedule this season could be tougher than last season’s historic gauntlet.

TeamRankings.com called it the No. 1 toughest schedule in the country. KenPom considered it the No. 2 toughest schedule. All the Tigers did was set a single-season program record for wins (32), set a single-season record for non-conference ranked wins (4), win the Maui Invitational for the first time ever, win at Kentucky for the first time since 1988, win a regular season SEC title, feature an All-American, and make another Final Four run, among other things.

Amazingly, Auburn finished the season playing 18 straight games against NCAA Tournament competition, including the four games played in the Big Dance. That’s simply a remarkable gauntlet that lasted over two months.

But just when you think the 2025-26 campaign might feel like a reprieve compared to last season’s schedule, think again.

“I asked Mike Burgomaster the same question when he was putting the schedule together,” associate head coach Steven Pearl said during a speaking engagement this week when asked about the difficulty of the upcoming slate. “It’s going to be a challenge. Some people think it’s not as tough as last year and I disagree.”

The top three teams in T-Rank’s 2026 preseason projections are Houston, Purdue and Michigan. Auburn will play all three away from Neville. Arizona is No. 14. That will be a true road game for the Tigers. Oregon is No. 26, another neutral-site game at the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, along with Michigan, with a third challenging game on the docket as well. N.C. State, the SEC-ACC Challenge opponent, falls inside T-Rank’s preseason Top 40 as well.

That would be three Top 10 teams per T-Rank, four inside the top 15, five inside the top 30, six inside the top 60, with another high-profile get to be determined in Vegas. Last season, Auburn played three inside the top 11, four inside the top 15, six inside the top 41 and seven inside the top 63 during the non-conference, per T-Rank’s final rankings.

“I feel like the competition is just as good, but we’re playing with 10 new guys, so I feel like it’s even harder than it was a year ago just based on what our roster looks like,” Pearl said.

Pearl recently told Auburn Live he didn’t expect the same type of non-conference record from one season ago (only losing at Duke). Either way, the opportunities for growth will come early and often.

“We have our hands full,” Pearl said. “We’ll obviously be really challenged heading into another really, really challenging SEC schedule. It’s going to be daunting, but obviously, it will help us get ready for league play, and it will obviously help us get ready for the tournament.”