Bruce Pearl preaches making history, and Auburn did just that on Wednesday night with an 81-68 win over Mississippi State.

For the fourth time in program history, Auburn clinched a SEC regular season title.

Bruce Pearl-led Auburn teams now have two SEC regular season titles, with the 2018 team winning one, too. Auburn previously won the conference title in 1999 and 1960.

"I place a greater value — you guys have heard me say this many times — regular season championship in the SEC, to me, is the greatest prize," Pearl said prior to the game. "It’s not the tournament because the tournament is three or four games. And I know what happens in March: You win six, you win a national championship.

"But in order to win our league this year, a year where the league is as good as it's probably ever been, that’s historic."

Auburn improves to 26-4 and 14-3 in SEC play with its win over Mississippi State on Wednesday night.

"It means so much to us because this league is so good," Pearl said on SEC Network. "There's about seven or eight teams that could've won this thing and the fact that Auburn has put itself in this position is just incredible. It means so much because it was just so difficult."

A win on Saturday against South Carolina would clinch the title outright for Auburn; that game is set for noon CT on SEC Network. Saturday's game will also have a pre-game ceremony officially changing the name of the arena to Neville Arena.