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Auburn men’s basketball adds pair of neutral site matchups against Purdue in 2024 and 2025

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Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl gave his warning in May.

“We’re gonna have the toughest non-conference schedule that we’ve ever had,” Pearl said in a media availability ahead of his Fore The Children charity golf event.

And on Monday, Auburn took another step in that direction as the Tigers announced the addition of a matchup with the Purdue Boilermakers at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena on Dec. 21.

Auburn and Purdue will also meet in 2025 in another neutral site game from Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Dec. 20, 2025, the program announced.

“I am grateful to Matt Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers for agreeing to a two-game series to be played this year in Birmingham and next year in Indianapolis,” Pearl said in a release Monday. “Matt has one of the finest college basketball programs in the country. His kids play hard and play the right way. Purdue is one of the top programs in the Big Ten winning three conference championships and being ranked No. 1 nationally over the last three seasons.”

Auburn’s meeting with Purdue in 2024 comes on the heels of the Boilermakers appearing in last season’s national championship game and will be the third meeting in the two programs’ history. Purdue currently holds a 2-0 record over Auburn with wins coming in 2016 and 2001. Those games were played in Cancun, Mexico and at Purdue, respectively.

Later this year, however, the Boilermakers and Tigers will meet on the hardwood of Birmingham’s Legacy Arena, where Pearl believes a sellout crowd is likely in order.

“It’ll be a game and an opponent that we could actually sell the building out,” Pearl said when teasing a “big game” in Birmingham last month.

“Since I got to Auburn, I’ve recognized that we have family all over the place. Family likes it when you come visit them in their town, right? Whether it’s Birmingham or Huntsville or Nashville or Mobile. It just means more when we bring Auburn to Birmingham. We’ve done that with playing at Legacy (Arena). We even played it when it was the BJCC or something like that. Playing here was important,” Pearl added.

Auburn last played in Birmingham in 2019, when it beat Saint Louis in Legacy Arena.

After Monday’s scheduling announcement, Auburn’s 2024 non-conference schedule now includes: