The Auburn Tigers football program lacks tradition

The entire landscape of college football has changed and there is much more to come. NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, who knows where this will end up. The Southeastern Conference welcomes Oklahoma and Texas to the league this fall, and as a result, many conference rivalries have come to an end.

The SEC released this Opponents of the 2024 conference schedule in December 2023, and recently decided the 2025 schedule will be the same, just with home and road opponents flipped.

For vintage Auburn Tigers fans, the opponents on the 2024 and 2025 schedule are more symbolic of the changes of the times and what to expect from the future, rather than a continuation of the rich traditions with other league foes.

It's a two-off of where the league will likely eventually settle, and the league office had a chance to renew or continue Auburn's history with some of its league rivals. Instead, Auburn drew longtime members from the Big 8, the Southwest Conference and a few others with which it doesn't have a long history.

The Southeastern Conference was founded in 1933 with 13 members, including Suwanee, Georgia Tech and Tulane, who left in 1940, 1964 and 1966, respectively. From 1967 to 1992, the league consisted of the other 10 charter members Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

The fall of 1992 marked the first of three expansions as Arkansas and South Carolina joined the conference and the first college football conference championship game was formed. Missouri and Texas A&M joined in 2012, and now Oklahoma and Texas in 2024.

The one constant over the past 91 years of the SEC has been the membership of those 10 schools, which have been members for the long life of the league's existence. In fact, most of them were joint members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Southern Conference before the SEC's existence.

Heading into 2024 and 2025, the SEC office and those responsible for scheduling were tasked with incorporating Oklahoma and Texas into the conference schedules while also maintaining traditional rivalries and competitive balance. Without the ability to look into the future of whatever will happen to the ACC and the consequences that will ensue, the SEC has opted to keep it simple with 8-game conference schedules and no divisions. Every team in the league plays either Texas or Oklahoma.

Auburn kept Alabama and Georgia on schedule and added Oklahoma, leaving room for five other opponents. Rather than maintain its current and long-standing rivalries with the likes of Mississippi State, LSU and Ole Miss, or renew old rivalries that had disappeared due to previous expansion such as Tennessee and Florida, Auburn attracted a number of other schools where it does not have a long tradition. .

In fact, Auburn has more all-time meetings with the seven opponents not scheduled than with the eight who are scheduled.

Auburn and Mississippi State have played each other every year since 1937 (not counting 1943) for a total of 97 meetings. That's more than the Iron Bowl has been played, but that streak will be broken this year. (Most of the Bulldogs rivalry ends in 2024, but more on that later).

LSU and Ole Miss have clearly been on Auburn's schedule as Western Division foes every year since 1992, but their competitive days go beyond that. Auburn and LSU have met a total of 78 times. Ole Miss 47 times. None of these schools are scheduled for 2024 and 2025.

Auburn and Florida have met on the playing field a total of 84 times. Aside from World War II, the Tigers and Gators played every year from 1927 until SEC reformatted its schedule after the 2002 season. Fans on both sides of Auburn/Florida have fond memories of classic clashes in the 1980s and 1990s. The Florida game late in the season was part of what Pat Day called Amen Corner, prior to the games with Georgia and Alabama to end the year.

Auburn and Tennessee have similar histories. That rivalry took place annually in late September beginning in 1956, but ended after the 1991 season due to expansion and the move to divisions.

In a two-year quick fix that would have been great for fans to see Auburn return to Ben Hill Griffin or Neyland Stadium, neither will happen. And neither the Vols nor the Gators will return to Jordan-Hare.

Since Mississippi State, LSU, Ole Miss, Florida and Tennessee are not on the schedule, now let's see who is.

Kentucky and Vanderbilt are the two SEC charter members that have engaged with Auburn the least often. They are both on the schedule.

Oklahoma's long-standing Big 8/Big 12 rival Missouri also made the cut. Old Southwest Conference rivals Arkansas and Texas A&M round out the eight Southeastern Conference teams that will play Auburn over the next two years.

Here is a list of conference teams, ranked by the number of times Auburn has played them (teams on the 2024-2025 schedule are in bold/CAPS).

GEORGIA 128
Mississippi State 97
ALABAMA 88
Florida84
State of Louisiana 78
Tennessee 54
Ole Mrs. 47
VANDERBILT 45
KENTUCKY 34
ARKANSAS 33
South Carolina 14
TEXAS A&M 14
Texel 8
MISSOURI 4
OKLAHOMA 2

SEC football programs Auburn ranked second, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th were left off the schedule. Half of the teams on Auburn's schedule have been members of the league since 1992.

The only programs whose traditional competition was hit harder than Auburn's were Mississippi State. The annual Egg Bowl is scheduled for late November, but the Bulldogs' other rivalry has come to an end. Mississippi State and LSU have played 117 times, but that will be over for at least the next two seasons. Same with MSU vs Alabama (107 games), and aforementioned MSU vs Auburn (97). Even Kentucky (51) didn't make the Bulldogs program.

The league office managed to tie together old SWC rivalries over the next two years by playing in the SEC, such as Texas vs. Arkansas, Texas A&M vs. Arkansas and Texas vs. Texas A&M. Big 8 rivals Oklahoma and Missouri also meet again. Somehow, though, some SEC rivals had to come to an end.

It's probably only a matter of time before more rivalries end, but it certainly would have been nice and seemingly easy to have some sense of normalcy and tradition on the schedule.

Auburn's 2024 Football Schedule

Sat. August 31 Alabama A&M 6:30pm CT
Sat. September 7 California 2:30 PM CT
Sat. September 14 New Mexico (HC) 6:30 PM CT
Sat. September 21, Arkansas
Sat. September 28 Oklahoma
Sat. October 5 in Georgia
Sat. October 19 in Missouri
Sat. Oct. 26 in Kentucky
Sat. Nov. 2, Vanderbilt
Sat. Nov. 16 Louisiana Monroe
Sat. Nov. 23 Texas A&M
Sat. Nov. 30 in Alabama