College Gameday crew picks Kentucky to beat South Carolina

Four of the six panelists (including Nick Saban) on College Gameday picked Kentucky to beat South Carolina later today.

During ESPN’s weekly pregame show on Saturday morning, the quartet of Desmond Howard, Saban, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit went with the Wildcats over the Gamecocks. Only Pat McAfee and celebrity guest picker Michael Phelps went with South Carolina (and Pat mighttt have been influenced solely so he could get in a joke about the Gamecocks — “I’ll take the Cock” were his exact words).

Howard noted how South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers isn’t a great passer and that Kentucky will try to make him beat the ‘Cats through the air. Saban doesn’t believe that the Gamecocks can score enough points to keep up with UK while Corso gave Kentucky a slight edge in a close finish. Herbstreit made sure to give new QB Brock Vandagriff a shoutout and the “spice” he’s brought to the offense.

The SEC Nation crew also gives Kentucky the edge. With this week’s edition of the show taking place right outside of Kroger Field, they had good reason to pick the ‘Cats and appease the crowd of fans in the background. Jordan Rodgers, Tim Tebow, and Paul Finebaum all picked Kentucky while Roman Harper was the lone believer in South Carolina.

Finebaum clapped back though, calling Harper’s choice “the dumbest pick I’ve ever seen” before throwing a giant South Carolina hat into the sea of blue.

The Wildcats received 75 percent of the fan vote to take down the Gamecocks on College Gameday while 71 percent of the fans went with Kentucky on SEC Nation. Over at FanDuel, UK is an 8.5-point favorite to beat South Carolina.

Kentucky vs. South Carolina is set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. EST on ABC in Lexington.