The Auburn Tigers have, in the grand scheme of College Football, one of the toughest 2026 slates, on paper, as things stand in January. In the smaller but still somewhat grand scheme of the SEC, though, Auburn has it easier than several of the schools on its schedule that also have a first-year head coach.
CBS Sports' Carter Bahns ranked Alex Golesh's first go-round on the Plains as the No. 5-toughest in the conference, behind the Arkansas Razorbacks' Ryan Silverfield at No. 1, then the Kentucky Wildcats' Will Stein, then the Ole Miss Rebels' Pete Golding, and finally, the almost-Auburn head coach, Jon Sumrall, and his Florida Gators.
Bahns' explanation held within it something interesting: Arkansas, Florida, LSU, and the Vanderbilt Commodores are seen as "swing games," and the Tigers' schedule is easier than two of those because AU hosts them at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
"Golesh brought 13 South Florida players with him to Auburn. Week 1 against Baylor will tell whether those former Bulls are ready for Power Four football. If they are, then the rest of the schedule sets up well for the Tigers to get back to bowl eligibility for the first time since 2023. Most of their swing games (Florida, Vanderbilt, LSU and Arkansas) are at home, and if they defend Jordan-Hare Stadium in those spots, everything will fall into place to create an exciting debut season for Golesh. Anything greater than six wins would be Auburn's best campaign of the 2020s," Bahns wrote.
Auburn can do damage if LSU and Florida are 'swing games'
Having enough faith in Auburn, and, more specifically, Golesh, Joel Gordon, Byrum Brown, Keshaun Singleton, and the rest of the weapons on their way over from the USF Bulls, to claim LSU and Florida are "swing games" is massive.
Hiring Golesh has shed a doom-and-gloom opinion from national figureheads on AU that became a self-fulfilling prophecy over the past half-decade. Then again, you can like Golesh the man as much as possible and not believe in him if there's nothing to believe in.
There's something to believe in. There are results in the American Conference, which in any given year, like 2025, can be on the level of the ACC and Big 12, to believe in. There's a process to believe in.
If Lane Kiffin can't get in your head, does he really have an advantage with one of the most scrutinized groups of teenagers and early 20s youth of all time? LSU is too expensive to lose, and their head coach is too much of a lightning rod for the program to weather it without maximum controversy. But if the Bayou Bengals are a "swing game," they just might. Plus, if there's a no-nonsense, but no beef coach who can keep Kiffin's antics at bay, it does feel like it's Golesh.
As for Sumrall, one has to hope Golesh is the kind of guy to get his team focused enough to beat the other option that Auburn had above the ex-Bulls head coach on its coaching Hot Board.
Golesh has beaten the Gators before. If anyone owns a mental edge in that one, as far as one can tell this early, it's AU.
Don't sleep on the Auburn Tigers. They're expected to be in the mix with several SEC schools that were seemingly more aggressive to immediately improve.