Auburn Football: Kickoff Times for First Three Games of Season Announced
June 1, 2018
Taylor Jones
Gus Malzahn presser on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017, in Atlanta, GA.
Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics
The ESPN family of networks, as well as CBS, have announced their schedules for the first three weeks of the 2018 College Football season. Auburn will play two-afternoon contests to open the season, with one game under the lights at Jordan-Hare Stadium
By my calculations, there are 91 days until Auburn faces Washington inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to kick off the 2018 season. ESPN and CBS have not only grown our anticipation, but they have conveniently planned out the opening weeks of the season for SEC teams by announcing start times for the first three weekends’ games.
The 2018 Chick-Fil-A kickoff game in Atlanta will feature the Washington Huskies and our Auburn Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, September 2nd, at 2:30 P.M.central time on ABC. This meeting between the Tigers and Huskies will be the first, and Auburn’s first game against a Pac-12 opponent since opening the 2013 season with Washington State at Jordan-Hare Stadium, with Auburn winning, 31-24. Auburn is 8-3 overall vs. the Pac-12.
The game will also be the third straight contest that Auburn has played inside new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and the new home of the Atlanta Falcons has not been kind to the Tigers so far. Auburn is 0-2 with losses to Georgia (28-7 in SEC Championship) and UCF (34-27 in Peach Bowl).
Auburn’s home opener against Alabama State will kickoff at 6:30 P.M. CT on the SEC Network alternate channel. The distance between these schools is only 53 miles, but these two will meet for the first time at Jordan-Hare Stadium on September 8. This will be Auburn’s first game against an in-state, non-conference team since defeating Alabama A&M 55-0 in 2016.
Finally, the SEC opener with LSU will kickoff at 2:30 P.M. CT on CBS, the third game of the CBS broadcasting schedule in 2018. LSU leads the all-time series 29-22-1, and upset Auburn last season in Baton Rouge, 27-23.
