For the second season in a row, the Auburn basketball team will be debuting their talents in Birmingham, Alabama, ahead of the regular season. The twist? An exhibition game against an ACC opponent.
On October 14, the Tigers will return to The Magic City to participate in the Ballin in Boutwell event at Boutwell Arena to take on the Florida State Seminoles in a pre-season exhibition game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central Time.
The Tigers participated in the event last fall to kick off Steven Pearl's first season as the new head coach of Auburn basketball. Facing off against Oklahoma State, the Pearl's first squad took the game to overtime, but ultimately fell to the Cowboys 97-95.
Keyshawn Hall was the star of last year's Ballin in Boutwell exhibition, scoring 28 points and tying the game at the buzzer to send the matchup into overtime. Pearl told the media that the exhibition helped the staff and the team get to know each other more, especially after the Tigers were forced to create their entire roster (except Tahaad Pettiford) from scratch and Bruce Pearl had announced his retirement just weeks before the game.
“Very competitive game,” Pearl said of last year's matchup, per the Auburn Plainsman. “Defensively, we just aren’t where we need to be. You can’t overreact to one result. We play the game to win the game. I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to beat a good but short-handed Oklahoma State team.”
The Tigers ultimately went on to finish the 2025-26 season with a 22-16 overall record and a 7-11 conference record. Several players dealt with injuries that kept them out for the season, and Auburn ended up just barely missing out on the NCAA Tournament before accepting a bid for the NIT and winning the championship.
Florida State is coming off a season where they finished 18-15 under first-year head coach Luke Loucks, and they ended with a 10-8 record in the ACC. It will be the Seminoles' second appearance at the Ballin in Boutwell event after they faced off against Alabama last year.
Ahead of Ballin in Boutwell, the Tigers will head to Greece for their 2026 foreign tour under the leadership of head coach Steven Pearl after visiting Israel in 2022 and Italy in 2018 under Bruce Pearl. The full non-conference schedule is expected to be announced by the program soon, with games against Clemson, Arizona, Wisconsin and Middle Tennessee already confirmed.
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