ESPN Puts Auburn 'On Notice' For Becoming An Underachieving Program

The Auburn Tigers have had a stretch of some really underwhelming seasons.

Auburn hasn't finished two games above .500 since 2019- struggling for five years in a row - and has gone through three different coaches in that period. For reference, the Tigers had three such seasons between 2000 and that '19 season.

It's been an underwhelming beginning to the 2020s. Current Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze is looking to change the Tigers' fortunes and bring them back to national relevance.

ESPN recently released an article breaking down college football's biggest underachievers - including the likes of the Penn State Nittany Lions, Florida Gators, Texas A&M Aggies, USC Trojans, Miami Hurricanes, and more. Article authors Bill Connelly and Adam Rittenberg broke down the list into seven different groups: "CFP no-shows," "under the projections," "hoops or else," "never won big," "money problems," "could've done more," and "who's next."

Auburn fell into the last tier, "who's next," which ESPN also considers the "on-notice" tier. The Tennessee Volunteers are also in this tier.

Here's what Rittenberg and Connelly had to say about why and where the Tigers are underachieving:

"Auburn isn't the most decorated program in its own state and has gone through periods of poor performance and internal dysfunction. But the capability is there on the Plains. The Tigers won the national title in 2010 and went to the championship game three years later. They have 19 AP top 10 finishes, 13 since 1983, and were one of the nation's most consistently strong programs from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s.

Other than Georgia's, Auburn's is the closest SEC campus to Atlanta, one of the nation's top recruiting hubs, and the Tigers can easily access south Georgia and north Florida. Auburn fans are known for their passion, and the school has been ahead of the curve with its NIL setup, which coach Hugh Freeze is starting to capitalize on.

The next step is finding consistency after a turbulent last decade that featured only one 10-win season, one top 10 finish and one season of fewer than three SEC losses -- all in 2017. The SEC is only getting tougher with Texas and Oklahoma joining, but Auburn should position itself for CFP contention under Freeze in the next few seasons."