The North Alabama Lions will face the Auburn Tigers for the first time ever on the gridiron in 2028, the school announced on Monday.
North Alabama will travel to take on Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2028.
“Aligning a future matchup with an in-state SEC opponent has been a scheduling priority for our football program,” said UNA Director of Athletics Dr. Josh Looney. “This will be an incredible experience for our University, fans and alumni. Our coaching staff is closely connected to the Auburn program. We appreciate athletic director John Cohen and head coach Hugh Freeze for the invitation to visit Jordan-Hare Stadium.”
North Alabama is a member of the United Athletic Conference (UAC) in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Lions are led by head coach Brent Dearmon, who served as an analyst at Auburn University in 2013 and 2014.
“This is an enormous deal for UNA football,” said Dearmon. “We’ll take the visitor spot, not only for an SEC game, but for an in-state SEC power. This will fire up our fans and our players. Most of them grew up Auburn fans or dreamed of playing on such a stage.”
North Alabama is currently scheduled to open the 2028 season on the road against another SEC opponent, the Mississippi State Bulldogs, on Sept. 2.
Auburn rounds out its 2026 non-SEC slate with the Jacksonville State contest. The Tigers have planned games with Baylor (Sept. 5) and Southern Miss (Sept. 12) in that year.
North Alabama is the first announced non-conference opponent for Auburn for the 2028 season.
Football Schedules
North Alabama Lions should be in consideration for FCS opponent with Georgia Bulldogs.
Auburn, unlike Alabama, doesn’t shun playing in-state FCS and G5 schools.
Auburn has a history of playing other state universities in Alabama. The attitude is if you are going to pay a million bucks to an FCS or HBCU, keep it in the state school family, so to speak. Same goes with FBS UAB, Jax State, and USA. Troy is the only exception I can think of, because the coaching staffs share film and ideas and have a lot of linkages historically…
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Meanwhile UAT, refuses to play in state FBS UAB… let alone any other.
Terry Bowden can do the coin flip to start the game since he coached at both schools.