Auburn Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl Comes offannounced the school, and ended his career in the coaching of his university 42 days before Auburn’s first game of the 2025-26 season.
Pearl’s son Steven, the associated head coach of the Tigers, is expected to take over the team.
Pearl, 65, leaves College Basketball with a general record of 477-224 (.680), including 246-125 (.663) in the past 11 years in Auburn. He Auburn led to the second last four of the school last season and earned the best overall seed in the NCAA tournament after winning the SEC Regular Championship championship. The Tigers lost from Florida, 79-73, in a national semi-final of the All-SEC.
In the past decade, Pearl Auburn, a side issue in college hoops, transformed in almost a decade of losing seasons before he took over in 2014, to one of the top programs in the country. Pearl Auburn brought to two Final Four and won at least one share of three sec regular seasonal titles and two conference tournaments championships.
There have been rumors that Pearl, known as pronounced on social media platforms on various political subjects, could consider a run for a public office. He was talked about as a potential candidate to replace colleague -republican Tommy Tuberville as an American senator from Alabama. (Tuberville, who leaves the Senate to run for Governor of Alabama, was Auburn’s football coach from 1999 to 2008.) Pearl spoke to those rumors in September and told reporters: “It is certainly something that I had considered. It is something I thought a lot about, but I am clear here today and I am in practice and I have exercise tomorrow.”
Before Auburn, Pearl was the head coach in Tennessee (2005-11), Milwaukee (2001-05) and Division II Southern Indiana (1992-2001). He took the vols to the NCAA tournament in each of his six seasons and reached three sweet 16s and one elite eight. He was fired in 2011 after the NCAA accused him of unethical behavior for lying during an investigation into recruiting violations. Auburn hired him for five months before his three-year show cause ended.
Steven Pearl, 38, has been in his father’s staff since he arrived at Auburn and was promoted to head coach in August. He played for Bruce in Tennessee from 2007 to 2011.
Steven is 1-0 as head coach of Auburn, after he was filled in for Bruce in December 2021 as acting head coach when Bruce served a suspension of two games as part of NCAA fines with regard to the former Auburn Associate head coach Chuck Person, who was found to have ethical rules of conduct. Auburn was confronted with various penalties for the findings in that study, including a self-imposed 2020-2021 in-season ban. According to the release of the NCAA at the time, Pearl “could not follow the associated head coach adequately and he did not promote atmosphere of compliance.”
Steven acted as head coach in the 70-44 Auburn victory over North Alabama on December 14, 2021 (another Auburn assistant filled in for Bruce during the 99-68 victory of the Tigers on Nebraska three days earlier.)
(Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty images)
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