Analysis: What new schedule could mean for South Carolina 2020 hopes
With a big move to try to salvage the college football season, things just got more difficult for South Carolina, though not as difficult as it could be
The Clemson game is gone. The SEC schedule remains, along with two more games against unknown opponents, and that preserves the TV content that might keep numerous athletic departments afloat. And outside Clemson, a big thing going away from USC’s schedule is a trio of games against smaller-conference, or lower-division, teams in the Carolinas.
The news of a conference-only SEC schedule matters in a notable way for a team that was already looking at an uphill battle with the 2020 schedule.
This exposes a reality not often talked about that’s vital to the bedrock of college football.
Schools like South Carolina, Kentucky, LSU or Alabama get to fatten up a little on the smaller schools. It means wins flow upward from the schools with smaller followings to schools with bigger ones. Even a not-great season in the SEC can end with an OK bowl trip.
Will Muschamp said after last season that a bowl should be the expectation in Columbia, and this arrangement is a reason why. (Smaller schools then return to their conferences and battle it out for smaller prizes.)
As South Carolina was hoping to make a bowl, if bowls are even a thing this year, those three free wins were going to be helpful in getting to that .500 mark. Now they’re gone.
“A revised schedule for the 2020 SEC football season will be announced at a later date following approval by the Conference’s athletics directors,” the league said Thursday.
Any projection has to be taken with a grain of salt in uncertain times, but based on Bill Connelly’s S&P+ system, in South Carolina’s eight SEC games the Gamecocks project to only be favored twice.
Of the five SEC West teams that could go on the schedule, USC would be favored against Arkansas anywhere, Ole Miss at home and Mississippi State at home. The game would be about even in Starkville.
A new South Carolina football schedule is expected to include the previously announced eight SEC opponents: Home games vs. Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Georgia; and road games at Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt and LSU. According to Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger, “a separate scheduling model — composed by the league office using strength of schedule — will determine the two additional opponents for 2020.”
This season projected to possibly be make-or-break for the current coaching staff. The pandemic and financial fallout likely make any changes difficult, but that slate also means making Year 5 headway just got a whole lot tougher.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Analysis: What new schedule could mean for South Carolina 2020 hopes."
