Joel Klatt evaluates South Carolina's 2025 outlook, chance to make the College Football Playoff

South Carolina came within a few spots of earning its way last season into the College Football Playoff. Now, with the same record again, Joel Klatt thinks this could be the fall where the Gamecocks make their debut appearance in the field.

Klatt, who listed his Top 10 teams most likely to make their first-ever playoff on his show this week, had the Gamecocks at No. 3. That’s with enough returning production, namely on offense and more specifically at the top-end with their biggest names on both sides of the ball, to think South Carolina could be back in consideration again for an at-large berth.

“Love LaNorris Sellers, breakout star in the second half of last season as South Carolina won their last six in the regular season. Does need to cut down on turnovers, but I think that’s going to come with experience, at least I felt like it did when I was playing. 13 last year. He needs to be certainly under 10. They do have a new offensive coordinator this year with Mike Shula replacing Dowell Loggains, who went to App State,” Klatt. said “On defense, they’ve got to replace seven starters, including Kyle Kennard, the Nagurski Award winner on the edge. That’s going to be difficult. But they have one of the best pass rushers in the country – Dylan Stewart is coming off a Freshman All-American season.

“Shane Beamer feels like, I would certainly assume, like, they’re going to be quality on defense, they’re going to be quality on offense. They’ve hit the portal to fill some holes. They’ve got some real stars.”

South Carolina reached its highest-ever playoff rankings in the first year of the expanded field. That’s with, after a 3-3 start, a 6-0 finish to the regular season with wins at Oklahoma, vs. No. 10 Texas A&M, at Vanderbilt, against No. 23 Missouri, and in the finale, at No. 12 Clemson in the Palmetto Bowl. That got the Gamecocks within a few seeds of getting in.

But, with how it played out, namely with two of their losses being to two of the other teams in their conference trying to get in, the Gamecocks would finish as the fourth team out. Klatt now thinks that this prediction comes down to the slate, with it being a con now but possibly a pro in 2025.

South Carolina plays a pretty difficult schedule that, with enough losses, could obviously keep it out again. However, if the Gamecocks can just again get to 9-3, Klatt believes there’d be enough there on the resumé for the them to make the CFP.

“The issue becomes the schedule,” Klatt said. “They’ve got a real good shot at starting 5-0. Toughest game is at Missouri, okay. But then it gets real when the calendar turns to October. Check this out, four straight weeks – at LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama, at Ole Miss. Then a bye week, then at A&M. Hello? Hello! They still have Clemson left in the back end of that schedule. The schedule is brutal…Man.

“Like, 9-3? It’s going to be difficult to keep them out because, again, remember now. Let’s just say hypothetically they’re 9-3. That means I’ll just look at their most difficult games. Let’s say their most difficult games are, like, at LSU, ‘Bama at home, and I would say Clemson, or you could argue at Ole Miss.

“Well, if they’re 9-3, that means that they would still have a win at Missouri, they would have a win over Oklahoma, they would have a win at Texas A&M, and either over Ole Miss on the road or Clemson at home,” Klatt assessed. “9-3 for South Carolina looks very good. Very good. Similar to Florida in terms of the difficulty of their schedule and how the committee might view them at the end of year. So, 9-3 could be the bar for South Carolina.”