Proposed third permanent Auburn football rival has gotten better of one-sided rivalry in recent years

247Sports’ Brad Crawford recently projected every SEC school’s permanent rivals when the conference adds Texas and Oklahoma in 2024, and all three of the proposed rivals have gotten the better of Auburn football in recent years.

In fact, all three of their proposed rivals make up the last four College Football Playoff National Champions. In addition to Iron Bowl rival Alabama and Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry counterpart Georgia, Crawford proposed LSU as the last annual lock on the Tigers’ schedule.

Since 2000, LSU has a 14-9 record against Auburn football — though AU was a half away from having won three straight the past three seasons but ended up blowing a 17-0 lead during their October 1 Week 5 matchup.

Hugh Freeze was hired to have Auburn football crashing the top tier of the SEC

It goes without saying that Alabama, Georgia, and LSU make up the top tier of the SEC by way of winning the conference and the CFP title in recent years. Until another team from the conference can run the four-team gauntlet (12-team field starting in 2024) those three will remain in a class of their own.

Hiring Hugh Freeze was AU’s shot at crashing that party considering his successes against Nick Saban while at Ole Miss and his willingness to recruit trench talent capable of taking on the top-ranked behemoths those programs — particularly the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs — bring in year in and year out.

Should the Tigers be locked into facing those teams annually, it won’t be long before Freeze either has his guys competing or he is out the door. Since AU is committed to paying Gus Malzahn, Bryan Harsin, and numerous coordinators and positional coaches from both regimes, it’s not an impossibility that the brain trust would add Freeze and his coaches to that mix if they don’t get the job done.