Auburn’s Bruce Pearl hints at the Tigers playing a ‘big game’ in Birmingham in 2024
According to Pearl, who just finished up his 10th season on The Plains, Auburn’s upcoming non-conference slate are the fruits of the Tigers’ labor in recent years.
“It’s where we’ve worked so hard to try to get to,” Pearl said during an Auburn Ambush stop in Hoover on Tuesday. “It’s like, look, be careful what you wish for now. So, right now, we’re able to be in touch with some of the best programs in college basketball, and they’re actually interested in playing us now. Now, if we go back to their town, their fans think it’s a big game.”
So far, there are just two confirmed non-conference games on Auburn’s 2024-25 schedule: a trip to Hawaii in November to compete in a stacked Maui Invitational, and a trip to Cameron Indoor, where the Tigers will take on the Duke Blue Devils as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge.
However, Pearl hinted on Tuesday that there’s another big non-conference addition is in the works — one that would take the Tigers back to Birmingham.
“I don’t think we’re in any position to make any kind of announcement about a game in Birmingham yet,” Pearl said Tuesday. “But I can tell you, we’ve got potential for a big game in Birmingham in December. We’re working on it. Contracts, I don’t think, are quite done. It’ll be a game and an opponent that we could actually sell the building out.”
Auburn hasn’t played a game in Birmingham since 2019, when the Tigers beat Saint Louis in Legacy Arena.
“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,” Pearl said. “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 continued to say his friends in Birmingham will often say it’s hard for them to get tickets to games at Neville Arena.
“I tell them, ‘I know it’s hard, but we have these standing room only (tickets), and we’ve got things. Come on down. Believe me, you can get in. We’ll try not to turn you away,’” Pearl said. “But that’s why it’s important that we actually play games here in Birmingham. They’ve got a big arena, and we can get some tickets.”
Birmingham’s Legacy Arena at the BJCC seats 18,000 and, by the sounds of it, could play host to an Auburn men’s basketball game in the near future.