Win and they're in? Not quite but South Carolina's College Football Playoff chances have improved according to ESPN's predictor
South Carolina has needed wins and chaos to stay in the hunt for its first ever College Football Playoff berth and it got both on Saturday.
As a result, its chances of making the playoff have jumped according to ESPN.com’s College Football Playoff predictor.
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The predictor, which is built on ESPN’s FPI, appears to have updated Sunday. Even though the site says “last updated” Nov. 17, that appears to be a glitch since the percentages for each team to make the postseason have shifted since the previous update, which actually came on Nov. 20, not the 17th. The predictor has typically updated on Sundays and then in the middle of the week after the latest CFP rankings have come out.
The predictor currently gives South Carolina a 23 percent chance of making the 12-team field, the 18th highest chance of the teams listed.
However, the Gamecocks do, of course, have one more huge opportunity to pad their resume when they travel to Clemson next weekend to renew the annual rivalry in what may be the biggest game in the matchup’s history.
Beat the Tigers, who are also in the CFP Top 25, and South Carolina’s chances of making the playoff jump all the way to 58 percent, according to the predictor.
Those still aren’t great odds and the Gamecocks will still need help but it’s the highest percentage Carolina has had on the tracker since it debuted as an option on the site.
Carolina’s chances have been buoyed by a five-game win streak and the mass chaos that hit college football on Saturday when six teams ahead of the Gamecocks in the CFP Top 25 lost.
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The latest interation of the CFP Top 25 will be released on Tuesday night at 8 ET on ESPN when the Gamecocks will likely move up into the Top 15 after checking in at No. 18 last week.
The Gamecocks moved up to No. 14 and No. 16, respectively, in the Coaches Poll and AP Poll when they were updated on Sunday.
As a reminder, the CFP 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 and Tigers are set for a noon showdown next Saturday in Clemson.
