Auburn football: Future non-conference schedules beefed up with UCLA, Baylor additions
By Rob Maxwell
The Auburn football team’s non-conference Power 5 scheduling quota is filling up for a long time.
On Thursday, Auburn AD Allen Greene announced that Auburn will play home-and-home series with Baylor in UCLA.
- Auburn at Baylor in Waco, Texas, on Aug. 30, 2025
- Baylor at Auburn on Sept. 5, 2026
- Auburn at UCLA in Pasadena, Calif., in the Rose Bowl on Sept. 4, 2027
- UCLA at Auburn on Sept. 2, 2028
Auburn has played Baylor four times and the 2027-28 games against the Bruins will be the first between the two programs.
Here’s how Auburn’s non-conference schedules look like through 2028:
2018: Washington (Atlanta), Southern Miss, Alabama State, Liberty
2019: Oregon (Arlington, Texas), Tulane, Kent State, Samford
2020: North Carolina (Atlanta), Southern Miss, Massachusetts, Alabama A&M
2021: at Penn State, Georgia State, Alabama State
2022: Penn State, Western Kentucky, Mercer
2023: at California
2024: California
2025: at Baylor
2026: Baylor
2027: at UCLA
2028: UCLA
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Beginning in less than three weeks when Auburn plays Washington on Sept. 1 in Atlanta in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic, the Auburn football schedule is stout for years to come. It’s littered with marquee games from this season through 2028.
Of course, a lot depends on how good these opponents — and Auburn — are down the road, but on paper, it looks good and fulfills the conference’s mandated requirement of scheduling at least one Power 5 opponent each season.
And while the early season neutral site games are fun, made-for-TV events, it’s nice to see more home-and-home series between Power 5 programs. After this season’s game in Atlanta against Washington, the Tigers have two more seasons with early neutral-site matchups before embarking on back-and-forth trips with Penn State, Cal, Baylor and UCLA.
It’s not only an opportunity to see some different programs on the Auburn campus, it also gives Auburn football fans the chance to travel to campuses they don’t often get the chance to visit.
Baylor AD Mack Rhoades IV released a statement, praising the matchup against Auburn:
"“We are excited to announce a home-and-home series with Auburn. This is an exciting opportunity for our student-athletes to compete against a tradition-rich Power 5 opponent and for our fans to enjoy games against a top out-of-conference team.“One of our goals is to provide a challenging schedule each and every season. Non-conference games like these, in addition to the Big 12’s true round-robin conference schedule, will help us continue to put our teams in position to compete for championships.”"
The 2018 Auburn football schedule is one of the toughest in the nation. Along with the opener against top-10 Washington, Auburn has its yearly games against Georgia and Alabama — of course, the two teams that played for the College Football Playoff last season — and both of those are on the road.
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The news Thursday was met with enthusiasm and at least one Auburn fan was pleased to see the Tigers looking outside the ACC for that Power 5 matchup. Auburn has played Clemson often (six times since 2007) and Georgia Tech in 2003 and 2005.