The Southeastern Conference office, on Monday, announced both start times and television network designations for the football games to be played on Saturday, September 23rd. CBS will follow the Alabama Crimson Tide, playing in Nashville against the Vanderbilt Commodores at 2:30 PM.
The Missouri Tigers will take on the Auburn Tigers at Faurot Field in Columbia, with that game placed into a one week ‘hold’, with Syracuse at LSU and Florida at Kentucky. Of those three games, one will have a 6 PM kick, with the other two at 6:30. Following the conclusion of this weekend’s games, final designations will be given to those three contest.
The game will mark Auburn’s SEC opener and the first time the program has ever traveled to Missouri, as well as the first regular-season matchup between the two schools. The all-time series between Auburn and Missouri is tied, 1-1, with Auburn winning the most recent matchup in the 2013 SEC Championship Game. The only prior meeting between the two schools came during the 1973 Sun Bowl, which Missouri won.
No. 15 Auburn will host Mercer this weekend as a tune-up for SEC play. Missouri, which opened conference play last weekend with a loss to South Carolina, will host Purdue on Saturday.
The 6 o’clock kickoff will go on ESPN2, with the 6:30 games to go to either ESPNU or the SEC Network. Both Missouri and Auburn are 1-1, coming off Saturday losses, with MU falling to South Carolina and Auburn losing at #3 ranked Clemson. Auburn at Missouri pregame on the state-wide Missouri Tiger Radio Network, and local affiliate KTTN FM 92.3, will hit the air two hours prior to kickoff.
ESPN’s first game of the day on Saturday the 23rd will be a neutral site game from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where the Arkansas Razorbacks take on the Texas A&M Aggies. At 6 o’clock, ESPN will televise the Georgia Bulldogs home game with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
On the SEC Network, the Tennessee Vols host the University of Massachusetts at 11 AM, followed by Louisiana Tech at South Carolina at 2:30.