Auburn Football is set to kick off the 2022 campaign at Jordan-Hare Stadium against the Mercer Bears on Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. CDT.
Auburn has a lengthy history with Mercer that began when both schools were members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The first-ever meeting took place in 1896 when the Tigers traveled to Macon, Georgia, and defeated the Bears 46-0. These two teams would go on to face each other nine times between 1897 and 1916.
Auburn would depart from the SIAC in 1921 but would play Mercer one last time in 1922, defeating the Bears 50-6 in Auburn. The Bears would disband their football program 20 seasons later and would reinstate it in 2014.
In 2017, Auburn and Mercer met on the football field for the first time in 95 years and would go on to play the closest game in the series. In Auburn’s 24-10 win over Mercer, quarterback [autotag]Jarrett Stidham[/autotag] passed for 364 yards, but it was [autotag]Kam Pettway[/autotag] who carried the load for Auburn by rushing for 133 yards and scoring three touchdowns.
Auburn holds a 12-0 all-time record over Mercer, but how have they stacked up historically against teams in Mercer’s league? Here’s a breakdown of Auburn’s history against current members of the Southern Conference: