National predictions ahead of South Carolina-Vanderbilt

This Saturday, South Carolina and Vanderbilt will meet inside Williams-Brice Stadium in a highly anticipated matchup. Both the Gamecocks and the Commodores are 2-0 on the year, but the intrigue leading up to this game has as much to do with Clark Lea’s team talking as it does with on-field storylines.

Quarterback Diego Pavia has mentioned multiple times this offseason that Vandy has the South Carolina game circled on the calendar. Then, this week, offensive lineman Bryce Henderson has given a guarantee of victory for his team.

Meanwhile, the Gamecocks haven’t lost in this series since 2008. The 16-game winning streak will be on the line on Saturday, as the AP poll’s No. 11 team hosts a surprisingly unranked but extremely confident challenger.

National opinions on exactly how Saturday’s showdown will go are somewhat mixed, but the consensus seems to be that the garnet and black will win the ballgame.

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BetMGM’s line for the contest opened at -8.5, in favor of Shane Beamer’s team. That line has dropped to -3.5 in the days since.

According to ESPN’s FPI matchup predictor, South Carolina has a 65.1% chance of victory. The outlet’s SP+ prediction model also favors the Gamecocks. The model projects a 30-21 victory for the home team on Saturday and gives USC a 72% chance to win.

On3’s JD PicKell went with the ‘Cocks, thanks in part to home-field advantage. He added that he believes Carolina is more talented and has to win to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.

On3 duo Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman also picked South Carolina. They also picked the Gamecocks to cover the spread. Both Staples and Wasserman argued that Dylan Stewart will have a major impact on Saturday.

The entire four-man crew at FootballScoop (Scott Roussel, Doug Samuels, Zach Barnett, and John Brice) picked the favored Gamecocks, too.

Fox Sports’ AI pick (yes, that is artificial intelligence) went in favor of South Carolina in a one-point affair. The virtually-generated score prediction read 25-24, Gamecocks.

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A win for South Carolina would keep the Gamecocks undefeated and with all of their goals in front of them. It would also extend the winning streak over Vanderbilt. No team in the SEC has a better record against another SEC team than Carolina has over Vandy (among teams that have played at least 30 times), as the all-time series favors Carolina, 30-4.

Saturday’s showdown will begin at 7:45 p.m. SEC Network will broadcast the SEC battle, while the ESPN app makes it available via streaming.

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