Analytics model calls South Carolina football the most watchable team of 2025
In the preseason conversations before the 2025 college football season, South Carolina has been a team firmly involved. Whether it is because Shane Beamer’s team is a candidate to make their first College Football Playoff or because the Gamecocks boast some of the top individual talents in the country, one cannot have a national conversation about the sport without including the garnet and black.
It stands to reason that once the season begins, there will be a lot of eyes on South Carolina football. In fact, according to analytics guru Kelley Ford, the Gamecocks are the most watchable team in the sport this year. The KFordRatings provide a weighted score for every FBS team’s overall watchability based on the quality of teams involved in the games and the expected competitiveness of those games. USC’s 2025 schedule sits at the top ahead of 135 other programs.
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Ford also broke down the schedule based on watchability each week and provided a season-long top 100.
South Carolina makes the weekly top 10 nine times. This includes the season opener against Virginia Tech on August 31st (No. 5), the SEC opener against Vanderbilt on September 13th (No. 8), the first road contest of the year against Missouri on September 20th (No. 3), another top-3 matchup against LSU on October 11th (No. 3), back-to-back home contests against Oklahoma (No. 1) on October 18th and Alabama (No. 1) on October 25th, trips to Ole Miss (No. 2) on November 1st and Texas A&M (No. 3) on November 15th, and the annual Palmetto Bowl rivalry game against Clemson (No. 2) on November 29th. The Gamecocks are one of two teams appearing in the top three at least seven times, joining the LSU Tigers.
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Perhaps best illustrating the quality of South Carolina’s schedule this fall is that Ford includes the Gamecocks seven times among his top 39 regular-season games. Eight total USC contests made the top 100. Games against Alabama (No. 8), Clemson (No. 15), Ole Miss (No. 19), Texas A&M (No. 23), Oklahoma (No. 27), LSU (No. 35), Missouri (No. 39), and Virginia Tech (No. 82) made the cut. The October 25th showdown with Alabama at Williams-Brice Stadium earned a 9.9-out-of-10 score.
In total, Ford gives South Carolina the fourth-most valuable season ticket package for the 2025 season. Despite opening with a neutral-site contest, this means only three teams play a more watchable home schedule than the Gamecocks.
Earlier this offseason Ford released his national power rankings. South Carolina slotted in at No. 17 overall in the country and No. 10 in the SEC.
