AUBURN — Bruce Pearl wasn’t coy during a podcast appearance with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Monday, when the college basketball insider asked the Auburn basketball coach how much longer he’d like to continue coaching.
“You’re 65,” Rothstein said. “You could obviously go on to do other things. You were in broadcasting before you went back to coaching … . How much longer do you want to do this?”
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Pearl was direct, saying: “Not that much longer, Jon.”
“I think it’s kind of a balance of life, of time, of work,” Pearl continued. “I love Auburn, I truly do. Auburn’s been unbelievable for us and our family. Part of the thing is, I also want to do it when I’m on top of my game. Coaches, we want to be on top of our game, because we owe that to our players and our fans. As you get a little bit older, you kind of take it one day at a time.”
While Pearl’s taking it one day at a time, Rothstein also asked how much Auburn’s success last season — making it to the program’s second Final Four and coming up short — potentially fuels the coach to continue helming a program in the search for what’d be his first Division I national championship.
“Honestly, not really,” Pearl said. “Not really, because I just think that — I did win a Division II national championship in 1995. I did finish second in 1994. So, I’ve been to the game a couple times. If I have a good enough team to get there, then I want to try to get there. And if I don’t, I want that team to do it’s best it’s capable of doing.
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“It’s no greater motivation having gotten close and not winning a Division I national championship. I want one really badly, but that’s not the reason why.”
Pearl, who has coached college basketball since 1982, will enter his 41st season as a coach later this year, when the Tigers begin their 2025-26 campaign. It’s Pearl’s 12th season on the Plains, a tenure in which he has compiled a 252-113 record, including eight vacated victories from Auburn’s 2016-17 season.
In all, Pearl is officially 706-268 as a head coach, between stints at Milwaukee, Tennessee, Auburn and then-Division II Southern Indiana. His total victories are the 10th-most among active Division I head coaches, and the third-most in the SEC. However, this offseason has fueled speculation of Pearl potentially moving on from coach, and turning from the hardwood to the ballot box.
As former Auburn football coach and current U.S. senator Tommy Tuberville has announced his candidacy for Alabama governor in 2026, in which he wouldn’t seek re-election to his senate seat, Pearl — who has been an outspoken voice of conservative politics — has had his name floated for a potential senate run.
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REQUIRED READING: Auburn AD John Cohen expects Bruce Pearl to coach 2025-26 season despite senate rumors
Auburn athletic director John Cohen told the Montgomery Advertiser in July that his expectation is Pearl will return to coach for the 2025-26 season, though he acknowledged that change is always possible.
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Pearl has been asked about the possibility, though he’s yet to give a definitive answer on whether he’d run. During a Fox News appearance on June 30, Pearl told Brian Kilmeade that: “I love my country, but I love being the basketball coach at Auburn. As we’re speaking right now, I’m in Atlanta recruiting players. So, look, these issues matter to me, and it’s not really about politics.”
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Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter. To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball’s Bruce Pearl doesn’t want to coach ‘that much longer’
