Oregon, Auburn Open 2019 College Football Season at AT&T Stadium
By Alex Drude
Duck football fans, mark your calendar for a must-see game five years from now. The Oregon Ducks and Auburn Tigers will open the 2019 college football season on August 31st (a Saturday) in the Kickoff Classic at AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
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The announced game, of course, is a rematch of the 2011 BCS Title Game, which Auburn won by three points. The Ducks and Tigers are not scheduled to meet in the regular season between now and then, but could potentially face off in a bowl or CFB Playoff game.
The Ducks already had an SEC team on the 2019 schedule and planned to play in Texas, but Texas A&M canceled the home-and-home series (the Aggies were scheduled to come to Autzen in 2018), opening the door for this game. Oregon has not announced a replacement home opponent for 2018.
Oregon is currently 0-2 in AT&T Stadium, first losing to LSU in the 2011 Kickoff Classic season opener. That was Oregon’s first game since the BCS title game loss to Auburn, making it the only two-game losing streak in Chip Kelly’s career as Oregon head coach. (Even if the two games were played almost nine months apart.) This January at AT&T, Oregon lost to Ohio State in the first-ever CFB Playoff Championship game.
If all goes well for the Ducks, Mark Helfrich will be starting his 7th season as Oregon’s head coach that game. It would also be his 10th season as an Oregon coach, since he began as offensive coordinator in 2009.
In addition, none of the players on either current roster should play in the game since its five seasons away. A redshirt freshman this year could potentially be a senior in the game, but that’s about it, barring injuries and other unforeseen calamities.
The other scheduled Kickoff Classics are Alabama and Wisconsin this September 5th, USC and Alabama next season, Michigan and Florida in 2017 and LSU vs Miami in 2018.