AUBURN – The Auburn men’s basketball team earned a historic No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship as the field of 68 was announced Sunday.
And Head Coach Bruce Pearl said, because of the seed, if the Tigers don’t win the national championship, “we’ll be disappointed.”
The Southeastern Conference regular-season champion Tigers (28-5) received one of a league-record 14 bids and will make their 14th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance next to 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Core memory 🤙 pic.twitter.com/r8I2Hh0zfz
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) March 16, 2025
Auburn is the top seed in the South Region (Atlanta) and will face the winner of an NCAA First Four matchup between No. 16 seed Alabama State (19-15) and No. 16 Saint Francis (16-17) on Thursday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
The Tigers are 19-13 (.594) all-time in NCAA Tournament games and 7-5 under head coach Bruce Pearl.
“We’re very pleased to have been recognized as this year’s No. 1 overall seed. We sort of feel like that makes us the regular-season national champion,” Pearl said. “These are the highest goals I’ve ever had heading into the NCAA tournament.
“It allows us to be able to say that our goal is to win the national championship. It allows us to say that, if we don’t win the national championship, we’ll be disappointed, as a No. 1 seed.”
Auburn has never met St. Francis of the Northeast Conference in the 119-year history of the program, while it is 6-0 all-time versus Alabama State out of the SWAC. Both teams last met in December 2023. The Tigers are tied 1-1 in both of their all-time meetings with Creighton out of the BIG EAST and Louisville out of the ACC.
