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ESPN Ranks Auburn Football Schedule Among Nation’s Toughest
By Andrew Stanley,
4 hours ago
Auburn is no stranger to hard schedules to face, and this year is no different. Today ESPN released a top 25 list of the hardest schedules in the country, and it includes a lot of the usual suspects, but some teams that you may not have expected.
Going back to the earliest ESPN’s FPI index tracks strength of schedule (2005), the selection method the company uses to produce these rankings, Auburn has only been outside the top 25 hardest schedules in the country five times, and of the remaining 14 seasons, they were only outside the top 10 twice. During SEC media days, when Freeze was asked about the strength of the schedule his team has to face, he said “It is what it is …We’re going to play it.”
Breaking down what this schedule means for Auburn, we’ll note some important games that landed them this high on the list.
Game 2 - California In 2023, The Golden Bears ranked 56th in ESPN's strength of schedule rankings, and turned in a record of 6-7 with a bowl game loss to Texas Tech. While certainly not the worst team Auburn will play, an ugly win last year indicates they're not to be taken lightly, even at home.
Game 5 - Oklahoma Last season Oklahoma was a solidly tier two program in the re-forming Big 12, coming in at 16th in their 2024 rank and posting a 10-3 record. The emergence of Texas in the same season made their exit from the conference less glamorous than they would have liked, but Auburn gets them at home and by then we'll have a better idea of who both teams are.
Game 6 - Georgia Admittedly, it was surprising to see Georgia post a higher schedule difficulty ranking than Auburn at No. 3, but as well as the tigers, they will face Clemson, Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas coming off of a playoff appearance. Auburn will be facing them the week after a tilt against Alabama in Bryant Denny Stadium.
Game 7 - Missouri Rounding off a trio of preseason top 15 teams is Mizzou, fresh off of a postseason win against Ohio State and coming in at 29th in these rankings. This one will be a tough game, even after a bye week, as Auburn travels to Columbia to play this team that Kept most of it's talented offensive core.
Game 12 - Alabama Seemingly neighbors in everything but hospitality, ESPN marked Alabama's schedule only one position easier than Auburn's at 6th. As always, if one game can be said to be most important, it's this one, and by this point in the season we should know a lot more about how this one goes. Alabama has a lot of questions to answer, most importantly about whether Kalen DeBoer is the answer moving forward.
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