South Carolina moves up three spots in College Football Playoff rankings
One week after debuting in the College Football Playoff Top 25 last week, South Carolina moved up to No. 18 in the latest update when the new rankings were released Tuesday night on ESPN.
The Gamecocks made their debut in the 2024 CFP rankings last Tuesday checking in at No. 21.
South Carolina, winners of four straight, earned an iconic 34-30 victory over Missouri Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium in a game for the ages. Redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers threw five touchdowns, including the game-winner on a shovel pass to Rocket Sanders with 15 seconds to go to help lead the Gamecocks to the win.
That four-game streak also features doubled-digit victories over Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma.
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While the Gamecocks, sitting at 7-3 overall and 5-3 in the SEC, are considered a long shot to make the 12-team field, they’re at least in the conversation.
ESPN.com’s Playoff Predictor gave South Carolina a 12 percent chance of making the playoff as of Tuesday.
The Gamecocks will have to win their remaining two games — at home against Wofford and on the road against rival Clemson — to remain in the hunt for the program’s first ever College Football Playoff berth, while hoping for chaos among the other teams ahead of them.
The same predictor gives Carolina a 34 percent chance to get in if the Gamecocks do win out.
Prior to last week, South Carolina was last ranked a Top 25 team by the CFP selection committee in 2022 when the Gamecocks were No. 20 in the final rankings after beating Tennessee and Clemson to finish the year.
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Since the CFP era began, Carolina has been ranked two other times — once the week before in that same 2022 season and once during Week 13 of the 2017 season when the Gamecocks were ranked No. 24.
[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Wofford football game]
This is the first season that the College Football Playoff has expanded from four teams to 12.
As a reminder, the committee’s top 12 teams won’t correlate exactly with the 12-team field.
The CFP will consist of the top five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked at-large schools. The top four conference champions will receive the top four seeds and a first-round bye. The fifth conference champion will be seeded by its CFP ranking. If that ranking is outside of the top 12 it will be seeded 12th as the final team in the field.
The teams seeded 5 through 12 will fight it out in the first round with the winners advancing to the quarterfinal round to face the top four seeds.
The Gamecocks are set for a 4:15 p.m. kickoff Saturday against Wofford in what will be their home finale.
Full CFP Top 25
1. Oregon
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Penn State
5. Indiana
6. Notre Dame
7. Alabama
8. Miami
9. Ole Miss
10. Georgia
11. Tennessee
12. Boise State
13. SMU
14. BYU
15. Texas A&M
16. Colorado
17. Clemson
18. South Carolina
19. Army
20. Tulane
21. Arizona State
22. Iowa State
23. Missouri
24. UNLV
25. Illinois
