Auburn might have just finished its best overall sports year
A national title, a runner-up, multiple SEC titles and several deep postseason runs have the Tigers in a strong spot as an athletic program.
Auburn’s 2023-24 athletic year was already a pretty strong one. Then the Tigers decided to throw a couple of major exclamation points at the end of it.
On Saturday, June 8, Auburn completed its final events at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. That put an end to a sports season that started all the way back on August 17, when the women’s soccer team faced Samford in its season opener. That’s nearly 10 whole months of competitive action.
The 2023-24 year — which was the first full one for Auburn under athletic director John Cohen — featured one memorable team national championship, nearly another one at the last moment, multiple SEC titles and several noteworthy postseason pushes.
Two years ago, Auburn had arguably its most successful athletic year of the era, with two SEC titles, two Final Fours, a national quarterfinal appearance and a pair of top-16 finishes. The variety among the championship-caliber teams was as strong as it had ever been.
This past year stacked up even better when it was all said and done.
Three different teams won SEC titles, topping the 2021-22 mark. The Tigers won a team national championship in men’s golf and narrowly finished in second in men’s track and field — which also had a natty in an event. They had two teams finish in the top eight nationally in their sport, and three different teams were in the top 16 at season’s end.
While the 2021-22 year had seven teams either win titles or go deep in their respective postseasons, the 2023-24 year had eight and still saw some breakthroughs elsewhere.
Even with another losing record in football and a considerably down year for baseball, Auburn could also point to the end of an NCAA Tournament drought in women’s basketball and celebrate sustained success in swimming and diving and volleyball.
With a successful 2023-24 in the books and 2024-25 just a little over two months away from getting officially underway, let’s take a look back at what all 17 varsity teams did this past year and where they’re heading in the future.
This breakdown goes team-by-team, and they’re (for the most part) ranked by their in-season accomplishments. Due to the wide range of in-season and postseason formats, it can be tough to compare some of these sports to others.
But, at the end of the day, Auburn appears to be in a good spot as it continues to push toward being a strong, all-around athletic program — or, as Bruce Pearl and many others like to say, an “everything school.”
