Auburn soccer starts with a doozy.
There’ll be no tune-up or cupcake game Wednesday night when the Tigers kick off the 2026 regular season. Auburn faces a brand-name, power-conference peer in Clemson at 6 p.m. at the Auburn Soccer Complex and on SEC Network+ — and it’s a nationally ranked Clemson team, at that.
Clemson comes ranked No. 25 in the country in the preseason coaches’ rankings, coming off a run to the NCAA Tournament last year, and a first-round win. Clemson lost in overtime in the second round to the SEC Tournament-winning Vanderbilt, and in all went 8-6-5 on the year.
Auburn, meanwhile, begins its second season under head coach James Armstrong, after going 5-6-7 in his first campaign. Auburn this year hopes to grow further into the aggressive play style Armstrong coaches, which won him an SEC regular-season championship at Mississippi State in 2024 and three seasons with 12 or more wins there.
Wednesday night marks a chance for Auburn to open its season by making a statement — and, in any event, it’s an opportunity for Auburn to sharpen its teeth against a program similar in resources and capabilities to the tough SEC teams looming on the schedule later this season.
Here are three things to know, plus three questions ask, going into tonight’s game:
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
Auburn’s series history with Clemson
Historically, Clemson has gotten the better of Auburn.
Auburn is 2-8-1 all-time against Clemson.
So this year’s team has a chance to buck a three-decades-long trend — and chip into that ugly all-time record.
For Auburn, though, its two wins in the series are big ones:
In 2004, Auburn beat Clemson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers hosted in the first two rounds of the tournament as a regional host that year. Auburn beat Clemson 2-0, before falling to 14th-ranked Washington 0-1 in the second round.
Auburn also won the last official meeting between the teams, in 2024, and it was a massive rankings upset: Clemson entered that game ranked No. 5 in the country in that year’s preseason poll. Auburn senior Dylan Driver (more on her below) scored a goal in that game.
Clemson, as it turns out was over-rated in that poll: Clemson missed the NCAA Tournament that year and finished with a losing record. But the win officially went down as a top-five win for Auburn, and at the time it marked Auburn’s first win over a top-five opponent since a 2011 win over then-No. 5 Duke.