Early 2016 schedule outlook: Auburn

As far as schedule goes, the Auburn Tigers kind of hit the jackpot in 2016.

No other SEC team can boast about starting off the football season with a five-game home stretch except for Auburn. The team that comes closest to this stunning work of scheduling is Ole Miss, who play four straight games at home after opening the season at a neutral site.

Included in that five-game stretch for Auburn are two SEC West foes, Texas A&M and LSU.  There are no back-to-back road games during the second half of the Tigers’ schedule either. For every tough away game (Ole Miss, Georgia, Alabama), there is a home game to break things up.

It actually seems that the only downside to Auburn’s schedule are the three tough SEC teams just mentioned, all of whom Auburn will have to play on the road. All three of those teams beat Auburn this past season, and being on the road makes it that much harder to exact revenge.

Being at home is one thing, but the season opener is still a brutal test. Rolling into town are the  Clemson Tigers, otherwise known as the runners-up to the national championship. Any doubts about Clemson’s strength were loudly silenced by their performance against Alabama in the national championship game, and many of the players who made up that team will be back on the field in 2016.

While facing Clemson will be an enormous challenge, Auburn should regard it as an opportunity, not a dreadful task. Nothing will get masked by fluffy nonconference games, as it was in 2015.

But if Auburn is able to defeat Clemson to start the season, the Tigers will shoot up the rankings in a hurry.

With all of this being said, let’s take a closer look at Auburn’s 2016 schedule:

SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN

Home games (8): Clemson (Sept. 3), Arkansas State (Sept. 10), Texas A&M (Sept. 17), LSU (Sept. 24), Louisiana-Monroe (Oct. 1), Arkansas (Oct. 22), Vanderbilt (Nov. 5), Alabama A&M (Nov. 19)

Road games (4): Mississippi State (Oct. 8), Ole Miss (Oct. 29), Georgia (Nov. 12), Alabama (Nov. 26)

Neutral site: None

Longest home stretch: 5 games (Clemson, Arkansas State, Texas A&M, LSU, Louisiana-Monroe)

Longest road stretch: None

OPPONENT BREAKDOWN

2015 ranked teams (final regular season): No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama, No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 21 LSU

2016 ranked teams (early projections): No. 1 Clemson, No. 4 Alabama, No. 8 LSU, No. 16 Georgia, No. 18 Ole Miss

Potential trap game: Arkansas (directly follows Auburn’s bye week and comes right before Ole Miss and a stretch of four consecutive SEC games)

Toughest SEC games: vs. LSU, at Ole Miss, at Georgia, at Alabama

FULL SCHEDULE