Auburn Receives Votes in Coaches Poll, Faces Daunting Schedule

The Auburn Tigers have a tough, but manageable schedule that could see them back into the top-25 by season's end.

The Auburn Tigers are counting on starting quarterback Payton Thorne in 2024. / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

College football is that much closer to returning to our Saturday routines. The preseason Coaches Poll was released Monday afternoon with the Auburn Tigers getting some recognition. 

They weren’t ranked, but they did receive votes. Auburn received 25 points in the first round of voting. So, if you want to get unofficial about things, they are 32nd in the country to start the season. 

While it’s not great to start off the season unranked, this is an improvement compared to last season. Auburn received 18 points in last season’s preseason Coaches Poll and was unofficially ranked 39th. 

There’s something to be said about improved expectations. The writers like what Hugh Freeze is doing on The Plains.  

Auburn played a lot of tight games last year against some good teams. Some might expect them to find themselves on the winning end of a few of those this season. 

Some of those teams are ranked in the preseason poll with some potential SEC Championship matchups in there as well. 

Auburn’s Tough Test 

The Tigers have five preseason-ranked teams on their schedule: first-ranked Georgia, fifth-ranked Alabama, 11th-ranked Mizzou, 16th-ranked Oklahoma and 20th-ranked Texas A&M. 

Three of these teams played Auburn last season as well. They played rivals Georgia and Alabama down to the wire losing those games 27-20 and 27-24 respectively. This year will be a bit different, both games will be on the road. However, Auburn knows how close both games were last season and is ready to spoil playoff hopes in front of the away crowds. At the very least, they’ll be looking to make some rivals sweat bullets again. 

Texas A&M shut them down last year 27-10. Auburn will host them this time around. They also have some former Aggies on the coaching staff now. There are no guarantees, but it could make a difference. 

Auburn last played Mizzou in 2022 and came up with a 17-14 overtime win. They've only played each other four times and just three times since they joined the SEC. Auburn has won all three Tigers v. Tigers games, but Mizzou is a much better team this time around.

They’re coming off a big 2023 season that saw them go 11-2 and win the Cotton Bowl over Ohio State to finish eighth in both the AP and Coaches Polls. They also gave Georgia a tough time in Athens with the Bulldogs winning by single digits, 30-21. 

Oklahoma will be getting its first taste of SEC road action against Auburn. It’s a good chance to show them what the SEC is about by welcoming them to the SEC with a win at home. 

If Auburn finds a way to pull out some wins against even two of these ranked teams - run the table the rest of the schedule and finish 9-3, they can easily find themselves in the top 10 by the end of the regular season. 

Potential Matchups 

Some honorable mentions that Auburn isn’t scheduled to play but could meet hypothetically in the SEC Championship Game. Are they likely to be in the title game? Probably not. But that won’t stop the fun. 

Two are the Tigers’ former division opponents, LSU and Ole Miss. The others are Tennessee and newly-added Texas. LSU, who lost key players to the draft, and Tennessee are doubtful. However, Texas was just in the College Football Playoff last season and Ole Miss is looking for that breakthrough moment and reach the title game for the first time.