Why This ESPN Analyst Believes Auburn Has One of the Best Schedules in Football

The Auburn TIgers will certainly have their tests, but a college football analyst thinks that it's better than many others in the SEC.

The Auburn Tigers have a favorable 2026 schedule, according to ESPN's Greg McElroy. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Auburn Tigers are set for an interesting season under first-year head coach Alex Golesh, especially given their schedule.

Some believe that the Tigers have one of the more difficult schedules in football–ESPN’s FPI ranked it as the 13th-toughest in the nation–but ESPN analyst Greg McElroy sees a significant opportunity for the Tigers.

“This one’s a bit of a fascinating exercise,” he said. “A first-year coach’s honeymoon does not usually come with a schedule that is this forgiving… according to the math, they are the second-most gettable schedule in the league.”

This almost directly competes with ESPN FPI’s perception of the Tigers’ schedule, so who is right? In my opinion, both and neither. The Football Power Index is a measure of how teams would be expected to perform on a neutral field, so there is certainly a gap there, but I also don’t think Auburn’s schedule is as easy by any stretch.

After all, the Tigers are set to play a brutal in-conference stretch of Tennessee, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss, all in a row, while also tacking on matchups with Alabama and Florida in more isolated events. McElroy speculates that the Tigers’ new-look roster could find an advantage in their home games, but the only team on that four-game stretch that is set to visit the Plains is LSU.

However, the Tigers do have a schedule that should set them up for improvement over last year’s 5-7 record, as if they are able to take down Baylor, Southern Miss, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Samford, which are all games that the Tigers are expected to win, they will already be at the level they were at last season. Add on a win over Vanderbilt or Florida, and the Tigers are already at .500, better than any Tiger record since 2020. 

However, if the Tigers want to rise above expectations and make the most of this schedule, a few key road wins will be crucial, and they are unlikely to come easily, especially given the caliber of teams the Tigers are set to play. There really isn’t an ‘easy’ matchup in the Tigers’ four-game stretch in October, but if they can steal one on their visits to Ole Miss or Tennessee, or in their lone October home matchup against LSU, they could be poised for a much deeper run than many expected from Golesh. 

Of course, rivalry games can go in just about any direction, but the fact that the Tigers will play both Georgia and Alabama in their respective homes makes the odds that much slimmer for Golesh in his first year.

So, though the Tigers’ schedule certainly is not the most difficult in the country, it is also definitely not the easiest, at least as far as optics are concerned. Odds and predictions, as they always do, will change as we begin to see all of these teams hit the field in September, which is likely the first real time we will fully understand the depth of Auburn’s schedule.

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