CBS Sports Projects Auburn To Make Bowl Despite Brutal Schedule

The magic number is six for Alex Golesh's group. Fortunately, many national outlets beleive that Auburn will make a bowl game for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Auburn Tigers quarterback Byrum Brown (17) and head coach Alex Golesh shake hands will need to clean it up offensively if they want to see a bowl game this postseason. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Auburn Tigers are off to a 3-1 start to the season, though their schedule only gets more difficult from here. Despite the gauntlet the Tigers are projected to face throughout the rest of the season, CBS Sports recently released its official bowl game projections, and the Tigers cracked the list.

CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford currently projects the Tigers to end up in the Texas Bowl against West Virginia, though he did not have any additional comment as to why.

From a strength of schedule perspective, it could be quite difficult for the Tigers to earn bowl eligibility this season, despite the fact that they already have three wins. Of the remainder of their schedule, the only games that the Tigers are early favorites in are their matchups with Arkansas and Samford, both of which are scheduled to be played no earlier than November.

Of course, a team typically needs six wins to earn bowl eligibility, meaning that if the Tigers win both of those matchups, they’ll still need to take a game against another SEC team in their schedule. How hard can it be? Let’s break down the matchups.

For starters, the Tigers will head to Knoxville this weekend to take on the Tennessee Volunteers, where Alex Golesh coached as an offensive coordinator back in 2023. The Vols are currently ranked as the No. 17 team in the country following their 20-17 loss to Texas.

Then, after a bye week, the Tigers will travel to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, who are ranked as the No. 2 team in the country after a murderous 41-13 blowout of the Oklahoma Sooners. We’ll learn a lot more about this team after they play Florida this coming Saturday, though as it stands, the team looks to be a juggernaut. 

The Tigers will finally travel back home after Georgia to take on the 11th-ranked LSU Tigers, which are now led by Lane Kiffin and looking to make a statement after losing to Ole Miss last week. 

After that, the Tigers will have a spooky matchup with the No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels on Halloween, who beat LSU in Week 3 but lost to Florida in a big way this past weekend. The Tigers will have a favorable at-home matchup against Arkansas afterwards, but then they’ll head to Starkville to take on the red-hot Mississippi State Bulldogs, which are currently ranked as the No. 16 team in the country.

Then, the Tigers head home to tune up against the Samford Bulldogs before their final game of the regular season, which is, as always, the Iron Bowl against Alabama, which is set to be played in Tuscaloosa this year. The Tide are currently ranked as the No. 7 team in the country.

So, if the Tigers can take just one of those big-time matchups, they’ll likely lock up bowl eligibility thanks to their strong start. However, none of these matchups will be anything reminiscent of easy, so the Tigers will need to continue to improve throughout the season if they want a shot at taking down any of the big dogs.

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