Tennessee basketball is gearing up for a top-10 game with Auburn.
The No. 7 Vols (17-2, 4-2 SEC) play the No. 1 Tigers (17-1, 5-0) on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Auburn’s Neville Arena.
Tennessee is 2-1 against No. 1 ranked teams under coach Rick Barnes. The Vols beat top-ranked Alabama 68-59 on Feb. 15, 2023, and beat No. 1 Gonzaga 76-73 on Dec. 9, 2018, in Phoenix. They lost to Kansas 69-60 in the Maui Invitational in November 2024.
This is the first time UT has faced the No. 1 team on the road in Barnes’ tenure.
Tennessee has not won at Auburn since 2017 and has lost four straight at Neville Arena.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be its first on-campus show of the season from Neville.
“Excited about ‘College GameDay’ being here,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Thursday. “We’re the only school in the country that can say, at least at this point, that ‘College GameDay’ has been on our campus five years in a row in college basketball. Now, if they go back to Duke later on this year, they go back to Kansas later on this year, they can say the same thing. Still, to be in that company, it speaks to the incredible home-court advantage that we have at Neville Arena — the best home-court advantage in all of college basketball, thanks to the Auburn family.”
How to watch ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ ahead of today’s Auburn basketball game
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TV channel: ESPN
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Streaming: ESPN+
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Start time: 11 a.m. ET, Saturday
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Location: Neville Arena, Auburn, Alabama
ESPN’s GameDay crew is anchored by some usual names, with Rece Davis hosting and Jay Bilas, Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg serving as analysts. Christine Williamson will serve as the “sideline” reporter, a role she’s held since 2024.
While the show won’t begin for another three hours, ESPN’s “SportsCenter” is slated to do multiple live hits from Neville Arena between gates opening at 8 a.m. and the show’s start.
What channel is Auburn basketball vs. Tennessee today?
Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas will be on the call for ESPN, serving respective play-by-play and color commentator duties. Jessica Sims will be ESPN’s sideline reporter.
Auburn basketball vs. Tennessee start time
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Start time: 8:30 p.m. ET
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Date: Saturday, Jan. 25
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Location: Neville Arena
Auburn and Tennessee are far from strangers, but Saturday’s contest will mark some history, as it’s the first-ever top-10 matchup in the confines of Neville Arena.
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Watch Tennessee basketball vs Auburn game today: Channel, time
