The Auburn Tigers are choosing not to participate in College Football's 2025/2026 bowl season, according to On3's Justin Hokanson, despite being one of the 5-7 teams on a short-list of potential invites. "Coaching change, staff building, roster retention, players in offseason mode — a bowl trip simply wouldn’t make sense," Hokanson explained of Auburn's decision.
As On3's Brett McMurphy had reported on Thursday night, "If Kansas State opts out of bowl, the 5-7 teams, based on 2020-24 multi-year APR rankings, an NCAA source told On3 Sports is in order Rice, Auburn, UCF, Miss St & Florida St.," adding that "These rankings aren't publicly available."
With the Tigers' recent addition of Alex Golesh as the program's next head football coach, sending out defensive coordinator/interim head coach DJ Durkin for one more game wouldn't have done much for the program long-term.
Golesh is still working to retain key pieces on the coaching staff, like Vontrell King-Williams, and recruit stars like Deuce Knight back into the mix. Knight is being heavily targeted by the Ole Miss Rebels this offseason.
Complicating those processes doesn't make much sense.
Even if it would've been a nice thing for the fans.
The case against Auburn withdrawing from bowl game consideration
Truth be told, you can easily make a case that this was a decision that didn't consider the fanbase much. There's no guarantee that Auburn would've been invited to a local bowl game, but the Birmingham Bowl or Music City Bowl was a distinct possibility given recent years' bowl season draws.
Why not just send a team, possibly made up of upperclassmen looking for opportunities as their football career wind down and others looking for extra money in their next NIL payday, to play with zero expectations in front of a fanbase that has had two postseason games since the 2021 season?
It's far from a make-or-break decision, but it's a disappointing one nonetheless. Sometimes, things don't have to make sense and could be done as a simple "Thank You" to a loyal fanbase that's gotten nothing on their investment since 2021.