Where CBS Sports projects South Carolina football will go bowling

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer has his team firmly in the College Football Playoff discussion this summer. The Gamecocks narrowly missed out on the 12-team field in 2024, and many national analysts believe USC could take the next step this fall.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm is not one of them.

In his most recent bowl prediction story, Palm has South Carolina just a bit lower. While he projects Carolina to have a good season, he does not have the Gamecocks in his College Football Playoff prediction. Instead, Palm has LaNorris Sellers and company playing in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Indiana.

(For those curious, Palm’s projected CFP field includes Byes for Penn State, Texas, Ohio State, and Clemson and first-round matchups between Alabama and Iowa State, LSU and Miami, Oregon and Georgia, and Notre Dame and Navy. Three teams from South Carolina’s 2025 schedule are in Palm’s potential Playoff field.

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Viewed by many as the top non-Playoff bowl option after the Citrus Bowl, a Reliaquest Bowl bid likely would mean that South Carolina would have just missed out on the CFP once again. It also likely would mean another eight or nine-win regular season.

South Carolina is extremely familiar with the ReliaQuest Bowl. Formerly known as the Outback Bowl, the Tampa-based postseason contest has hosted the Gamecocks five times. USC went 4-1 in Outback Bowl appearances, knocking off Ohio State twice and Michigan twice, while losing to Iowa.

The Gamecocks have faced off against the Indiana Hoosiers just once. That meeting came in the Liberty Bowl following the 1988 season, a contest Indiana won handily. It was the program’s eighth bowl loss in a row.

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