National predictions ahead of South Carolina-Missouri

This Saturday, the South Carolina Gamecocks will travel to the “other Columbia” for a date with the Missouri Tigers. The Mayor’s Cup matchup will feature a 2-1 (0-1) USC squad against a 3-0 (0-0) Mizzou team.

South Carolina will enter the contest coming off a tough home loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores. Missouri has won all three of its games so far this fall but hasn’t played a conference opponent.

The loss pushed the Gamecocks out of the AP top 25, but Shane Beamer’s team is No. 24 in the coaches poll. The Tigers are inside the top 25 of both rankings.

National opinions on the game have begun to reach a consensus. Unfortunately for South Carolina fans, the outside-of-Gamecock-nation belief is that the team will drop its second game in a row.

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BetMGM’s line for the contest has moved around a bit. The Gamecocks have been underdogs by as many as 13.5 points, but the Tigers currently sit as 11.5-point favorites.

According to the ESPN FPI matchup predictor, South Carolina has just a 19.8% chance of winning on Saturday. ESPN’s SP+ analytics model predicts a 32-18 victory for Missouri and gives Eli Drinkwitz’s team an 80% chance of victory.

During the picks portion of their show, On3’s Ari Wasserman and Andy Staples argued that the big spreads mean that national sentiment is that Gamecock starter LaNorris Sellers won’t play after suffering an injury against Vanderbilt. That contradicts more optimistic reporting on his status and USC’s official “questionable” designation on the SEC availability report. When the duo picked the game, Staples picked Mizzou to win and cover the spread. Wasserman went with Carolina to lose but cover the spread.

Joe DeLeone and Blake Ruffino of The Ruffino and Joe Show both picked Missouri.

Fox Sports’ AI pick (yes, that is artificial intelligence) went in favor of Missouri in a 30-22 contest. The virtually-generated prediction has the Gamecocks covering the spread in a loss.

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If the national predictions are correct and South Carolina loses, the road ahead would look daunting. The Gamecocks will return home for a game against Kentucky but will then have to face ranked opponents LSU (on the road), Oklahoma (at home), Alabama (at home), Ole Miss (on the road), and Texas A&M (on the road) in consecutive contests.

Last year’s Mayor’s Cup went home with the Gamecocks. South Carolina won the game, 34-30. Sellers went off for nearly 400 yards and five touchdowns.

Saturday’s showdown will begin at 7:00 p.m. (Eastern). ESPN will broadcast the conference battle, while the ESPN app makes it available via streaming.

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