Cal schedules Auburn for home-and-home; at Auburn in 2019, Berkeley in 2020

Cal athletics announced on Monday that the Bears have added Auburn to the nonconference football slate.

Continuing with its goal of adding high-profile out-of-conference opponents to its future schedules, California announced Monday that it will play Auburn in a home-and-home series in 2019 and 2020, marking the first time the schools will meet in football.

The Golden Bears will visit Auburn on Sept. 21, 2019, with the Tigers set to play at Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium on Sept. 19, 2020.

Auburn and Cal have never met in football.  Cal has not played an SEC opponent on the gridiron since defeating Tennessee 45-31 in the opening game of the 2007 season.

In addition to the games against Auburn, Cal also announced out-of-conference dates with South Dakota (Sept. 3, 2016), Weber State (Sept. 9, 2017), and Idaho State (Sept. 15, 2018).  So while the Bears have upped the ante by finding an SEC opponent, they have also for the time being decided not to back away from scheduling FCS competition in the out-of-conference schedule.

Here is a summary of Cal's future nonconference opponents:

2015 – Grambling State Sept. 5; San Diego State Sept. 12; at Texas Sept. 19
2016 – South Dakota Sept. 3; at San Diego State Sept. 10; Texas Sept. 17
2017 – at North Carolina Sept. 2; Weber State Sept. 9, TBA
2018 – North Carolina Sept. 1; at BYU Sept. 8; Idaho State Sept. 15
2019 – at Auburn Sept. 21, 2 TBA
2020 – TCU Sept. 5, Auburn Sept. 19, TBA
2021 – at TCU Sept. 11, 2 TBA

UPDATE:

One item of note on the above nonconference opponents: Cal's press release shows that the future game at BYU is being played on September 8, 2018.  This game has been moved from its original 2017 date, which is why Cal now has one OOC game left to fill for the 2017 season.