Beamer, South Carolina players weigh in on new conference schedule for 2024 and beyond
College football will look a little different down in the south next year. Besides CBS no longer broadcasting the game of the week in the SEC, two new teams will be joining the conference.
Oklahoma and Texas, historic programs from the Big 12, will join the SEC in 2024. This means there will now be 16 teams in the conference. The league will have an eight-game conference slate and get rid of the “East” and “West” divisions.
Every team will get a crack at one of the new schools on the block next year. South Carolina will travel to Norman to play the Sooners for the first time ever. It will be Shane Beamer’s first trip back since leaving Oklahoma to take the Gamecocks’ head coaching job.
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“Certainly great tradition at that place and excited about going back to Norman in 2024,” Beamer said. “We have a lot of football to play before then, but that’s a proud program with great leadership under Joe Castiglione, and excited about having OU and Texas in this awesome conference.”
Someone who’s also familiar with Oklahoma would be one of its former quarterbacks. Spencer Rattler played for the Sooners for three seasons before transferring to South Carolina in 2022.
By the time the game comes, there’s a good chance Rattler won’t even suit up for the Gamecocks. He’ll more likely than not be starting his pro football journey. But he did have some advice as to what to expect.
“It’s been a while,” Rattler said. “Just expect a lot of loud fans, big stadium. A lot of crimson and cream.”
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With the new schedule also comes some other changes. The Gamecocks will no longer play Georgia, Tennessee or Florida on a yearly basis. All of these teams have been considered to be traditional rivals in the past.
“I love going to those places. It’s those rivalries that you look forward to every year, the stadium is always packed. The news around the game is so intense. That’s the only part that I’m kind of upset about,” Kai Kroeger said.
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But change in some ways might be a good thing. For one, it takes the Bulldogs and Volunteers, both high-power programs, off the schedule, at least for a few years. It will also allow for the Gamecocks to see what else is out there.
“I know next year we’re gonna play some teams that we haven’t played before. And that’s what we’re looking forward to,” Kroeger said.
South Carolina will face LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri and Texas A&M at home in 2024. It’ll travel to Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Dates are yet to be determined.
