Auburn's Schedule This Season is an Absolute Nightmare

Monday's release of the AP's preseason Top 25 college football poll provided plenty of optimism for the Auburn Tigers. Gus Malzahn's boys will enter Week 1 as the No. 16-ranked team in the country, which is not a bad place to start.

The bad news for the Tigers, though? Literally half of their opponents this season are also ranked. And they'll be facing those teams with a freshman quarterback behind center, too? Wowza.

Yup, you're reading that right. Auburn will play six of the top 12 teams from the preseason poll at some point this fall. And it starts right in Week 1 with a showdown against the No. 11 Oregon Ducks.

Looking at this schedule alone could give a fan down on the Plains some real anxiety. So, what must the players be thinking?

While Malzahn has yet to name his starting quarterback, the job will either go to redshirt freshman Joey Gatewood or true frosh signal caller Bo Nix. And while both have all the talent in the world, they bring little to no college game experience.

Regardless of who starts for Auburn, the team's last two games of the regular season will be massive rivalry games against Georgia and Alabama. That alone spells trouble. It could be another long year for this team. But no game is played out purely on paper, and the War Eagle will certainly have its chance to fly high.