Auburn is now a basketball school: Ticket lottery games, campouts and

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• =”40″/ > Myron MedcalfMar 7, 2025, 09:00 AM ET Close Covers college basketball Signed up with ESPN.com in 2011
• Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

AUBURN, Ala.– One month before the No. 1 Auburn Tigers sealed their third regular-season SEC champion under Bruce Pearl, Charles Barkley was attempting to make his method through a sold-out crowd at Neville Arena.

“Charles! Charles! Charles!” fans screamed at the former Auburn super star, however it was the buzz for the group that captured his attention.

” [Before Bruce Pearl,] if we won one March Madness game, we ‘d resemble, ‘We had a fantastic season,'” said Barkley, who led Auburn to its very first NCAA competition appearance in 1984. “He got us to the Last 4 [in 2019], which was a shocker to everybody, today he’s gotten us to the point that unless we win a number of March Insanity games, we haven’t had a great season.

“That’s unbelievable.”

Before Pearl got here in 2014, Auburn– which will face rival and No. 6 Alabama in a Sonic Smash Hit on Saturday (2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN)– had actually ended up with a sub -.500 record in 12 of the previous 15 seasons, with an average attendance that filled less than 65% of its home arena.Editor’s Picks 2 Related In early

February,

nevertheless, the only method to get into a Tuesday night game versus Oklahoma was with a standing room ticket. The upper bowl was stuffed with fans who peered down onto the court, chicken sandwiches and beers in hand. The 1,100 seats in the student section called “The Jungle” had filled up hours before tipoff. And the leading boosters, who press every program forward these days, sat around the court.At Auburn

in 2025, it’s a minimum $1 million donation to even be considered for season tickets. (That check, naturally, features a parking spot in a special lot beside the arena.)

“A relative asked me about tickets to the Alabama game a couple of weeks earlier, and I simply sort of chuckled,” stated Jason Harbison, president of the Auburn Tip-Off Club– the official booster club for the program. “Whether you’re texting or seeing individuals around town or here on campus and at games, basketball is what everybody’s discussing.”

Auburn– desperate for success amidst its storied football program’s decrease– is chasing its first nationwide basketball champion, sustained by Wood Award prospect Johni Broome and five players who average at least 10 points. And with Pearl’s powers to encourage prospective transfers and big-money boosters, the Tigers are seemingly developed to stay at the top in a new period of college basketball.But that possibility

includes questions.How did they get here? And what will it take

to remain? “Now we’ve got to complete it out,”Pearl informed ESPN.” We have to finish it out.” Auburn fans have packed Neville Arena throughout the Tigers’2024-25 project. Stew Milne/Getty Images Simply after midnight on a Tuesday in February, dozens of Auburn students set up tents, camping out for tickets to an upcoming match versus Florida … four days before it.The demand at Auburn has heightened in the years after the group’s Last Four run, so the school has a lotto system to reward trainees who camp out for tickets and organize the process. That’s not unusual at schools like Duke, Kansas and Kentucky. But Auburn? That’s brand-new.

“We entered the [old arena] and you could stroll in when you wanted to and get a seat and enjoy games,” stated Corey Edwards, assistant vice president of student affairs and a former student who viewed games at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, the team’s home before Neville Arena opened in 2010. “However it’s amazing to see that we’ve reached capacity in the trainee section and to see the students being delighted about Auburn being fantastic in basketball.”

The school’s fan base is so major that the trainee area has an entire cabinet, including a president and vice president. Fans likewise take buses on road trips and line the streets in the cities of opposing teams to welcome Auburn once it shows up. It’s more affordable to see Auburn play far from home: Standing space only tickets for Saturday’s match between Auburn and Alabama are noted for practically $600 on ticket resale sites.

play 1:57 No. 1 Auburn removes No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa No. 1 Auburn beats No.

2 Alabama 94-85 in a big SEC match on Saturday.That acclaim can vanish simply as rapidly as it gets here, of course. Since winning and consistency are the only proofs of principle at the most volatile time in college basketball history.Pearl, naturally, knows that along with anyone.Four years after he led Tennessee to the Elite Eight in 2010, Pearl was still residing in exile. He had devoted NCAA violations by hosting previous Ohio State star Aaron Craft for a recruiting dinner at his house and after that lying to the NCAA about the occurrence, even after he was presented with photographic evidence. The Volunteers fired Pearl in 2011 after the school revealed other offenses, separate from the Craft examination. The NCAA hit Pearl with a three-year program cause, the scarlet letter of collegiate coaching, that basically banished him from the game.After the fallout, Pearl worked as a marketing expert and college basketball analyst at ESPN. An NCAA show cause has teeth: Any school that would hire him within that three-year period– throughout which he wasn’t permitted to hire– ran the risk of incurring charges from the NCAA.Pearl did not understand if he would ever get another possibility to coach– or if he desired.”It had to do with whether or not I want to go back into it, “he informed ESPN.” It was a mix of being embarrassed and liable … so I just didn’t know if I wished to go through that once again and even put my family through that again due to the fact that I had let so many people down.”However with 6 months staying on Pearl’s program cause, Jay Jacobs, Auburn’s former athletic director, had actually burnt out of the losing and sporadic crowds at the multimillion dollar arena. He provided Pearl an offer.Men’s Tournament Challenge Sign up now to play the # 1 Male’s bracket game for FREE!$135,000 in prizes.