Auburn Drew a Harder Slate of Permanent Opponents Than Alabama

Nick Saban was less than thrilled when he learned who Alabama's three permanent opponents would be in the new pod setup of the Southeastern Conference. Presumably, because they drew three very good teams in Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee.

Some fans are happy about this. The three games are classic, intense rivalries, and this helps preserve the bad blood between fanbases that look forward to knocking heads with each other every year.

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However, there's one SEC school that drew an even more difficult schedule: Auburn.

The Tigers of Lee County will be stuck playing Alabama and Georgia every single season. While the third team in their draw is Vanderbilt, that doesn't do much to make up for having to play the two teams coached by the greatest coach to walk the sideline and his greatest disciple every year. Especially given that Vanderbilt only scored .17 fewer points per game than the Barn did last season.

Auburn is going to get better under Hugh Freeze. However, that hasn't happened yet and it will likely take them a while to reach the heights LSU and Tennessee have achieved. Both of those teams beat Alabama last season, but that isn't enough to put them on the level of the Tide and the Bulldogs. In ten years, history will consistently show Auburn taking more losses from its permanent opponents than the Tide.

If anyone should be leading a crusade against this scheduling system, it's Freeze.