The first official football season of the Alex Golesh era is inching ever so closer, and after the doors closed on the 2026 SEC Media Days, the first picks are in for how the Auburn Tigers will do this fall.
GET PREMIUM ACCESS TO ALL OF OUR CONTENT BY SUBSCRIBING TODAY
The Tigers were officially picked to finish 12th in the SEC after local media outlets submitted their preseason predictions during the media days festivities. The representatives turned in ballots predicting the final SEC standings and their All-SEC team.
The polls were determined by a point system, with Auburn receiving a total of 936 points in the voting tally. The Tigers’ placement of 12th placed in front of Vanderbilt with 751, Kentucky with 546, Mississippi State with 467 and Arkansas with 262.
In 2025, Auburn was picked to finish 11th in the conference with a total of 1,272 points in Hugh Freeze’s third year in the position. He was fired following a 10-3 loss to Kentucky that year, and the Tigers finished 5-7 and did not make a bowl game for the second consecutive campaign, finishing 13th in the league.
Auburn now enters year one under Golesh seeking its first winning season since the 2019 season, when Bo Nix was a true freshman quarterback and Gus Malzahn was the head coach of the program.
Golesh’s most recent stop was at the University of South Florida, where he spent three seasons and went 23-15. He has spent time in the SEC though, serving as the offensive coordinator for Josh Heupel at the University of Tennessee for a short time.
The Tigers have not won a bowl game since 2018, when they defeated the Purdue Boilermakers in the Music City Bowl 63-14. Since then, they have lost in their last four postseason appearances, with losses to Minnesota, Northwestern, Houston and Maryland.
Georgia and Texas were projected to finish as the top two teams in the SEC in 2026, with the Bulldogs being predicted to win the league with 2,519 points, while the Longhorns earned 2,449 votes.
Eight teams earned first-place votes during the ballot submissions. Georgia earned 88 while Texas secured 57. All of the rest had single digits, with Ole Miss at six, Texas A&M at five, Alabama at three, Oklahoma and LSU at two and Kentucky at one.
Auburn also fielded three players on the Preseason All-SEC Team, with linebacker Xavier Atkins being named to the First Team, while defensive back Champ Anthony and kicker Alex McPherson were each selected to the third team.
The Tigers will open the season against the Baylor Bears on Saturday, Sept. 5 in the Aflac Kickoff in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
