National bowl projections following South Carolina's win over Kentucky

On Saturday, South Carolina bounced back from its two-game losing streak with a lopsided victory over the Kentucky Wildcats. The 35-13 effort pushed the Gamecocks to 3-2 overall and 1-2 in SEC play.

Carolina has made a bowl in three of four years under Beamer, but national college football pundits are somewhat split on the team’s chances of doing so in 2025.

Below, you can check out some of the latest national bowl projections for USC.

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On3’s Brett McMurphy shifted his postseason prediction for South Carolina football. After a Gasparilla Bowl pick last week, McMurphy now thinks the Gamecocks could match up with the TCU Horned Frogs in the Texas Bowl. USC has never played TCU and has never gone to the Texas Bowl. Current athletic director Jeremiah Donati arrived in Columbia after over seven years in Fort Worth.

Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura of ESPN both included South Carolina in their projected winter predictions. According to Schlabach, the Gamecocks will take on BYU in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on January 2nd. A trip to Memphis would be the team’s third, as a Steve Spurrier-led squad beat the Houston Cougars in 2006, while Joe Morrison’s team lost to Indiana in 1988. USC and BYU have never played. Bonagura predicts Carolina will play in the Birmingham Bowl against East Carolina on December 27th. The Gamecocks lost in the 2016 Birmingham Bowl to South Florida and lost to UConn in the then-named Papa John’s Bowl in 2009. Shane Beamer’s first team in 2021 beat ECU in the last meeting between the two teams.

Once again, Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan lists the garnet and black as a participant in the Liberty Bowl this winter. In his latest projection, the Gamecocks will take on the Baylor Bears. South Carolina and Baylor haven’t met since splitting a home-and-home in the 1970s.

CBS Sports bowl guru Jerry Palm is not as high on South Carolina. After picking the Gamecocks to make the College Football Playoff just three weeks ago, he has left the team out of his bowl projections altogether this week.

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There are other outlets that have followed Palm’s lead and have the Gamecocks missing a bowl following the 2025 season. Coming into the year as a somewhat trendy College Football Playoff pick, that would be a major disappointment for Carolina.

The next opportunity to stack a win will have to wait a week. Shane Beamer’s team is on a bye this week. Following the week off, the Gamecocks will travel to Baton Rouge for a date with the LSU Tigers.

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