National analyst Phil Steele lower on South Carolina's 2025 chances
Expectations are high for South Carolina football this fall. The Gamecocks finished 2024 with six-straight regular-season wins, logged another top 20 recruiting class, and return two of the most hyped players in the country in LaNorris Sellers and Dylan Stewart. Many prognosticators have pegged Shane Beamer’s team as a College Football Playoff squad, or at least a team that will be firmly in the discussion. However, veteran college football analyst Phil Steele is not one of them.
According to Steele’s 2025 season preseason, South Carolina will finish tied for 10th in the Southeastern Conference. You can see his entire predicted SEC order of finish below.
1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Texas Longhorns
3. Alabama Crimson Tide
T-4. Oklahoma Sooners
T-4. Texas A&M Aggies
T-4. LSU Tigers
T-7. Florida Gators
T-7. Tennessee Volunteers
T-7. Ole Miss Rebels
T-10. South Carolina Gamecocks
T-10. Auburn Tigers
T-12. Arkansas Razorbacks
T-12. Missouri Tigers
14. Vanderbilt Commodores
15. Kentucky Wildcats
16. Mississippi State Bulldogs
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Steele’s preseason ranking for Carolina is lower than the consensus. A 10th-place finish in the league likely would mean a losing record in conference play, something not many are projecting for the Gamecocks. He also ranked USC 27th nationally in his overall power rankings and 45th in projected national finish. For what it’s worth, ahead of last season’s 9-3 showing and tied-for-fourth-place finish in the SEC, Steele projected the Gamecocks to finish the 2024 campaign tied for 11th in the conference with Kentucky and Auburn, two teams that finished the year with losing records.
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Positionally, Steele does not like the 2025 version of South Carolina compared to the rest of the SEC. Other than quarterback–he likes LaNorris Sellers, having named him an All-SEC player last season and ranking the Gamecocks’ quarterback room No. 1 (tied with Texas) in the conference heading into this season–every positional unit on the roster ranks 10th or lower in Steele’s SEC positional unit rankings. No position other than quarterback ranks in the top 30 nationally for the longtime college football writer.
South Carolina has just over two months left on the calendar before they will kick off the 2025 season on Sunday, August 31st against Virginia Tech. The Gamecocks and Hokies will play in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
