National predictions ahead of South Carolina-Oklahoma

This Saturday, the South Carolina Gamecocks (3-3; 1-3) will be back inside the friendly confines of Williams-Brice Stadium. However, their opponent will be anything but friendly. The revenge-bent Oklahoma Sooners (5-1; 1-1) will be in town looking to avenge their blowout loss from the 2024 season.
Both Shane Beamer and Brent Venables are coming into the weekend after a loss. The Gamecocks lost to LSU, 20-10, last week. The Sooners dropped the Red River Rivalry, 23-6
Despite being a top-10 team earlier this season, South Carolina has fallen completely out of the top 25 voting in recent weeks. Oklahoma, previously ranked as high as fifth nationally, now sits at No. 14.
Saturday’s contest is the second of a stretch of five tough games for the Gamecocks. Carolina will take on five top-15 teams in a row.
As expected based on how the 2025 season has gone, national opinions on this game side with the Sooners.
Oklahoma is a 5.5-point favorite, according to BetMGM. That number has dipped as low as 4.5 points but sits at 5.5 points at the time of this writing. The over/under is set for 43.5 total points.
Based on ESPN’s FPI Matchup Predictor, South Carolina has a 45.1% chance to pull the minor upset on Saturday. The ESPN SP+ model is lower on the Gamecocks’ chances, giving the garnet and black just 29% odds. The analytics projection lists 27-18 as the most likely final score; that would cover the spread for OU.
On3’s JD PicKell said that South Carolina will win at least one game during their tough stretch of play through October and the beginning of November. He does not think that victory will come on Saturday. Instead, he predicted a 24-20 “ugly” win for Oklahoma. PicKell did hedge a bit, saying that he believed the Gamecocks would win at night.
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CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli picked the game against the spread and went with Carolina. He argued that the USC defense should cause problems for Mateer, forcing turnovers that keep Oklahoma from scoring.
Yahoo Sports’ Phil Naessens picked Oklahoma to win and cover the 5.5-point spread. He also predicted that South Carolina would struggle to move the ball at all against Brent Venables’ defense.
Fox Sports’ AI pick (yes, that is artificial intelligence) picked Oklahoma to win and cover the spread, 24-16.
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If these national predictions hold, South Carolina would drop to 3-4 on the season and 1-4 in the SEC. Reaching bowl eligibility would require at least one upset down the stretch, as well.
The program has only played Oklahoma once before, the blowout win last season.
This Saturday’s game will not be Brent Venables’ first game coaching in Williams-Brice Stadium, however, as he was the defensive coordinator at Clemson from 2012-2021. Shane Beamer will coach his second game against Oklahoma, a school where he was an assistant coach for three seasons.
Saturday’s showdown will begin at 12:45 p.m. SEC Network will broadcast the conference battle, while the ESPN app makes it available via streaming.