Bruce Pearl is retiring as Auburn’s head basketball coach. His son, Steven Pearl, will take over as head coach for the upcoming season.
Pearl posted this video to his social-media accounts to address his departure.
During his 11-year tenure, Pearl took Auburn to its only two Final Four appearances in program history. He won the SEC Tournament twice in 2019 and 2024 and the SEC regular-season title in 2018, 2022 and 2025.
Pearl guided Auburn to six NCAA Tournament appearances and it would’ve been seven if not for the 2020 event being cancelled by the global pandemic. He won 25 games or more six different times.
Pearl posted a 244-123 record (66.5%) at Auburn, going 112-83 in SEC play (57.4%). He led the Tigers to an 11-6 record in 17 NCAA Tournament games.
Pearl’s head-coaching career began in 1992 at Southern Indiana, where he built a Division II powerhouse. In nine years with the Screaming Eagles, Pearl posted a 231-46 record (86.4%) and won the Division II national championship in 1995.
In 2001, he was hired by Milwaukee. Pearl took the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament twice in his four-year tenure, including a trip to the 2005 Sweet 16.
Pearl parlayed that Sweet 16 appearance into the Tennessee job, and he became a star on Rocky Top quickly. He took the Volunteers to six consecutive NCAA Tournaments, three Sweet 16’s and the program’s first-ever Elite Eight.
In the 2010 Midwest Regional finals in St. Louis, Tennessee lost a 70-69 decision to Michigan St. in overtime. Nevertheless, Pearl was the toast of the town in Knoxville. He was pals with legendary women’s head coach Pat Summitt and showed up shirtless on more than one occasion to support the Lady Vols.
During his reign at UT, Thompson-Boling Arena became one of the nation’s toughest places to play. Pearl compiled a 50-2 record in the first 52 home games of his tenure. The facility was built for Summitt’s powerhouse program, but the TBO quickly began packing more than 20,000 fans in for home games on Pearl’s watch.
But everything changed for Pearl at Tennessee in September of 2010. Back in the summer 2008, Pearl had a held a cookout at his Knoxville home when Aaron Craft was on his unofficial visit to UT. He had invited Craft and his family to the cookout, which was a violation of NCAA rules.
The violation wasn’t a big deal in itself. However, Pearl told everyone in attendance at the cookout that Craft’s presence was an NCAA violation and to not tell anyone about it.
At some point, the NCAA was made aware of the violation and questioned Pearl about it. Pearl lied to the NCAA about the cookout and told Craft’s father to lie as well.
On Sept. 10 of 2010, Pearl admitted to lying to NCAA investigators about the cookout. UT self-imposed sanctions on Pearl and his entire staff and forced him to take a salary reduction. The SEC suspended Pearl for the Vols’ first eight SEC games.
Three days after getting blown out by Michigan in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, Tennessee fired Pearl on March 21. Later that year in August, Pearl was hit with a three-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA that would last until Aug. 23 of 2014.
After three years of working for ESPN, Auburn signed Pearl to a six-year contract worth $2.2 million per season. At his intro presser, Pearl said, “I’m humbled and blessed to be back in the game that I love. I don’t know how long it will take, but it’s time to rebuild the Auburn basketball program, and bring it to a level of excellence so many of the other teams on campus enjoy. I’m thrilled to join the Auburn family and appreciative of this opportunity and the challenge that awaits.”
Success didn’t come instantly. Auburn struggled to 15-20 and 11-20 records in Pearl’s first two seasons on The Plains. In Year 4, the Tigers returned to the 2018 NCAA Tournament for the first time since a Cliff Ellis team made a run to the 2003 Sweet 16. They edged Charleston 62-58 before getting spanked 84-53 by Clemson in the Round of 32.
Auburn made it back to the 2019 NCAA Tournament after beating Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee in a four-day run to win the SEC Tournament. The fifth-seeded Tigers edged New Mexico St. 78-77 before thumping Kansas 89-75 in the Round of 32.
Auburn drilled top-seeded North Carolina 97-80 as a 5.5-point underdog in the Sweet 16 to advance to the Elite Eight for only the second time in program history. Next, Pearl’s team got the best of another blueblood program by beating Kentucky 77-71 in overtime as a 4.5-point underdog.
Virginia had to make three free throws in the final seconds to rally for a 63-62 win over Auburn in the national semifinals. The heartbreaking defeat ended the Tigers’ season with a 30-10 record.
Auburn went 25-6 during the 2019-20 campaign, but the NCAA Tournament was cancelled. Then in 2020-21, the Tigers weren’t eligible for the postseason due to former assistant Chuck Person’s involvement in the corruption scandal. They struggled to a 13-14 record.
Auburn didn’t make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the next three seasons, but that changed this past year. Pearl’s team spent eight weeks ranked #1 in the nation, posting wins over #2 Alabama, #4 Houston, #5 Iowa St., #6 Tennessee and #12 UNC.
Auburn was the #1 seed in the South Region and advanced to another Final Four with wins over Alabama St., Creighton, Michigan and Michigan St. However, the Tigers let a halftime lead get away and lost a 79-73 decision to Florida, which would win the national title with Pearl’s former assistant Todd Golden leading the way two nights later.
The 65-year-old Pearl now hands over the reins to 38-year-old Steven, who was a key player for his father on several of his Tennessee teams and has been his right-hand man since his arrival at Auburn.
A few months ago, Pearl expressed interest in a future in politics, and many are expecting him to run for Tommy Tuberville’ senate seat when Tuberville runs for governor.
Auburn’s only rotational player returning from last year’s Final Four club is sophomore guard Tahaad Pettiford. Key additions via the transfer portal include ex-Mississippi St. forward KeShawn Murphy and former UCF forward Keyshawn Hall.
Incoming freshman guard Kaden Magwood and freshman forward Sebastian Williams-Adams are expected to make immediate impacts. Other portal additions include Kevin Overton (Texas Tech) and Abdul Bashir (Casper JC), and Auburn also signed Filip Jovic, an international player with experience in the ABA Yugoslavian League.
As of Monday afternoon, the status of Steven Pearl’s contract situation was unclear. Whatever the case, Auburn basketball’s next chapter begins now, and the pursuit of history continues.
FanDuel has Auburn listed with 40/1 odds to win the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Those are the tied for the 20th-shortest odds on the board.