Arizona and Auburn announce first ever home-and-home series between programs

Arizona and Auburn will play for the first time ever on each others home courts beginning with the 2025-26 season.
Auburn v Arizona
Auburn v Arizona | Mitchell Layton/GettyImages

Arizona and Auburn will play a home-and-home series beginning on December 6, 2025, as announced on Thursday. Auburn previously won both of the meetings with Arizona. The Tigers won 73-63 in the 1986 NCAA Tournament in Long Beach and 73-57 in the 2018 Maui Invitational third-place game.

Auburn began the 2024-25 season ranked 11th nationally, has been number one in the Associated Press top 25 for the last seven weeks and was second the six weeks before that. The Tigers are 26-2 overall this season playing in the SEC which is the best conference nationally in 2024-25.

Arizona is also scheduled to play Alabama in Birmingham in December after playing the Crimson Tide in Phoenix in December 2023. Arizona played at current number 11 Wisconsin and hosted second-ranked Duke and played in the Battle 4 Atlantis in November and lost to UCLA in Phoenix in December.

Auburn played Houston, Iowa State, North Carolina, Memphis, Duke, Ohio State and Purdue in non-conference this season. Duke and Florida gave Auburn their only losses this season. With Auburn playing Houston, Iowa State and Duke, Arizona was 1-2 against their common opponents with Auburn.

Arizona is also playing UCLA at T-Mobile Arena and at Connecticut next season in what is its usual daunting non-conference schedule. Auburn will look very different next season with its top four scorers and six of their top seven seniors. The Tigers have nine seniors on their 2024-25 roster.

It will be determined who returns for Arizona in 2025-26, but guard Caleb Love and forward Trey Townsend are the only seniors in the rotation for the Wildcats in 2024-25. Arizona signed four-star small forward Dwayne Aristode during the early signing period in November and has a commitment from guard Bryce James in the 2025 class.

Jason Scheer of Wildcat Authority reported Arizona is expected to add another high-profile non-conference game with the likelihood that the Big XII will cut their conference schedule from 20 to 18 games. The 2025-26 Arizona basketball schedule will continue to evolve.