Gamecocks Connection: About that 2024 schedule

ABOUT THAT 2024 SCHEDULE…

Hey, I’m Chris Clark with GamecockCentral.com, and welcome to Gamecocks Connection.

This weekly newsletter will consist of a summary of some of the latest happenings in Gamecock Country, reader questions, and one “main idea” that’s on my mind. Plus, there will be some other goodies along the way.

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What’s on the docket today?

South Carolina’s 2024 football schedule is out, and it’s interesting. I’ll give my thoughts, plus answer a reader question regarding which team could become a new in-conference rival for the Gamecocks.

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Get caught up.

Three quick things to know about your Gamecocks from the last few days.

💵 The latest college football revenue figures were released on Wednesday by USA Today. The South Carolina Athletics department brought in over $142 million in operating funds; that figure includes revenue share from the NCAA and SEC. 

That number ranked 27th in the country and 10th in the SEC. Of note: the SEC led the country in total revenue – over $2 billion produced. 

🏈 If you want a look at every SEC team’s 2024 football opponents, here you go. More on USC’s slate in just a bit.

🏈Five-star signee Nyckoles Harbor is now officially on campus for South Carolina football.

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The main idea.

There was plenty of anticipation leading up to the 2024 SEC schedule release on Wednesday night, and plenty of discussion across the country afterwards on the implications.

For the Gamecocks, there were several questions. Which of incoming SEC members Oklahoma or Texas would be on the schedule? Would the UGA rivalry continue? How hard was this thing going to be?

We have some answers now.

USC’s home contests will be against LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri, and Texas A&M.

The road tilts will be Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt.

No Florida. No Tennessee. Weirdest of all, no Georgia. 

In the midst of the conference trying to settle on a one-year bandage to put on this situation before transitioning to a new, permanent schedule model for 2025, it had already been reported that the league wanted to keep some of the big rivalry games intact for ’24.

That happened in many cases; Auburn plays both Alabama and Georgia, the Dawgs still get Florida, the Iron Bowl is intact, and so on. I’m excited to finally see the return of Texas against Texas A&M.

But it’s strange to see no UGA on USC’s 2024 schedule. Some of the best games in USC athletics history, some of the biggest wins, have come against the Dawgs. 

We knew that a shift was coming in some form or fashion, because a lot of the future scheduling models – ones that have conference teams playing three permanent opponents and a batch of rotating ones each season – were bandied about with UGA as one of the Gamecocks’ permanents.

Still, this is going to take some getting used to next year, and beyond if Georgia is not a permanent with a new model.

And yes, this schedule is difficult. It always is. Probably not even worth spending a lot of time in this space on the notion. Because of USC’s conference affiliation and its rival being both out of conference and quite good right now, a perennial hard schedule isn’t going away any time soon.

Now, there are some really neat games on this schedule. Ole Miss at home means Lane Kiffin coming to Williams-Brice. The last two contests against these teams were both on the road. One was the 2018 thriller, one was Will Muschamp’s last game as USC’s head coach.

The last time the Rebels and Gamecocks matched up in Columbia? The birth of Sandstorm, of course. 

LSU hasn’t traveled to the Palmetto State in a long time, either. The last time it was scheduled, the game was moved to Baton Rouge in 2015. That was Steve Spurrier’s last game as head coach at USC.

Carolina fans that had already made plans to travel to Tuscaloosa in 2024 get to keep those, since the Crimson Tide remain on the road schedule. 

Oklahoma brings plenty of intrigue, too. It’s a new program to the league, and South Carolina’s never played them at all. Brent Venables is the former Clemson defensive coordinator, and Shane Beamer was hired at USC while an assistant in Norman.

Yeah, it’s different. There are some things to like and not like. It’s still going to be a lot of fun.

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A question from the crowd.

Q: With the change in scheduling within the SEC, what team could you see becoming a new rival for Carolina?

– Paschal from Columbia, S.C.

Nobody’s ever going to approach Clemson/USC as a rival for USC from its own conference. Nor do I think the Gamecocks will develop an in-conference rival that eventually measures up to some of the secondary rivalries we see in the SEC.

I simply cannot see one of the new entries – Oklahoma and Texas – becoming a rival for Carolina.

It remains to be seen precisely how the league will set up its future scheduling model beginning in 2025. One key question, of course, is if there’s indeed a move to nine games. That could affect everything.

Previously, there was talk about having three permanent opponents and a cast of rotating schools. In that case, there was some buzz about USC getting Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky as its three.

For the one-year solution in 2024, Kentucky was the “permanent” for the Gamecocks.

Oklahoma and Texas are joining the league, but that’s not a fit for a “new rival” in my mind.

Since Missouri joined a year back, some folks have posited that it’s budded into a bit of a rivalry. The Tigers have had success the last few years, too in head-to-head matchups. It still just feels like a bit of a strange fit. 

I think a decent pick here would be Kentucky, with a caveat.

Mark Stoops has done great work with the program and has been a thorn in USC’s side. Shane Beamer scored the victory last season, a sweet one given some of the offseason comments Stoops made that seemed to be pointed right at Beamer.

The caveat: as much as Stoops has elevated that program, if you’re South Carolina, you’d like to blow past the Wildcats one day. 

If you don’t already count Tennessee as a rival, I like that one and it would probably be my pick.

Let’s say the Vols are indeed a permanent every year for the Gamecocks. The frequency combined with the history makes it a compelling pick. 

If USC indeed doesn’t play Georgia every year in the future, perhaps Tennessee comes to be viewed as the type of game that USC fans look forward to every year, particularly if the Vols continue to take their program to the next level.

Want to have your Gamecocks question answered here? Email me: [email protected] or hit me on Twitter: @GCChrisClark. 

Members can ask on The Insiders Forum. FYI: Premium subscribers do get priority; it’s only fair!

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What we’re talking about.

A fairly recent quote from USC athletics director Ray Tanner regarding SEC scheduling has some of our subscribers on The Insiders Forum going back and forth.

“You go into meetings, you put on your conference hat, right?” Tanner told Seth Emerson in March. “Yeah, I think we all have strong opinions on what would be best for our school…and in this case, if they said we had to play X, Y and U, I’d say, Yes sir, that’s what we’ll do. What’s best for the league is what’s best for all of us.”

If you are a subscriber with us, VISIT to see what they’re saying and to weigh in!

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