Auburn coach Bruce Pearl celebrates after his team defeated Michigan during the South Regional semifinal of the 2025 NCAA men's tournament at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl is stepping down as head coach and will be replaced by his son, Steven, the school announced Monday, Sept. 22.

Pearl, 65, coached the Tigers for 11 seasons and made two Final Four appearances. The 2024-25 team lost in the national semifinals to Florida and the 2018-19 squad lost to Virginia.

Pearl went 244-123 at Auburn and 706-268 overall across four stops as a head coach, including six seasons at Tennessee. He will move into an ambassador’s role with the school as special assistant to the athletics director.

“Eleven years ago, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to become the head basketball coach at Auburn, and it has been nothing short of amazing,” Pearl said in a statement. “With the Auburn Family’s unwavering support, we have built a program from the ground up and taken it to heights it had never reached before. Not only have we won championships, but we have built the best home-court advantage in college basketball, we’ve invested in this community and changed lives, and we’ve developed and graduated Auburn men. We built a program with the core tenants of faith, family and passion, and together, we made history. I hope we have made Auburn proud.

“I have been at this for almost 50 years and truthfully as hard as it is for me to say this, I have come to the realization that it’s time for me to step aside. Being the head coach at Auburn has been the privilege of my life. "

Steven Pearl played for his father with the Volunteers and joined the Auburn staff as an off-court assistant in 2014. He was named a full-time assistant in 2017 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2023. At 38 years old, Pearl will be the youngest head coach in the SEC.

"When I came to Auburn three years ago, Coach Bruce Pearl made it clear to me that he was nearing the end of his coaching days. It was obvious to me – even then – that we needed to create an internal national search to prepare for the time when Coach Pearl would be stepping down,” Auburn athletics director John Cohen said in a statement. “Throughout our detailed process, it became obvious to me and our staff that Steven Pearl was clearly the best fit for Auburn."

Auburn becomes the latest Division I program to attempt a father-to-son coaching transition. Among the most notable such changes include Bryce Drew replacing Homer Drew at Valparaiso, Sean Sutton replacing Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State and Murray Bartow stepping for Gene Bartow at Alabama-Birmingham. Most recently, Matt McKillop replaced his father Bob as the head coach at Davidson in 2022.

This is also the second high-profile coaching departure on the cusp of the regular season in as many years, following former Virginia coach Tony Bennett’s decision to step down last October.

While he’s been among the most successful major-conference coaches of the 21st century, Pearl’s legacy is dotted with controversy. As an assistant coach at Iowa in the late 1980s, Pearl was involved in a recruiting scandal involving top prospect Deon Thomas.

After Thomas committed to rival Illinois, Pearl recorded a phone conversation between the pair that included references to recruiting enticements offered by the Illini and then handed over copies of the recording to the NCAA. While the NCAA did not pursue an investigation of Thomas’ recruitment, a parallel investigation revealed infractions that resulted in penalties and a postseason ban.

His tenure at Tennessee ended following an NCAA investigation into illegal recruiting practices. Pearl misled investigators and told others in his orbit to do the same, eventually leading to his firing and a three-year show-cause ban.

An outspoken supporter of the Republican party and President Donald Trump, Pearl has discussed running for the Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat vacated when current Senator Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach, announced in May that he would be running to become the next Governor of Alabama.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bruce Pearl retiring after 11 seasons as Auburn basketball coach

Reporting by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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