The South Carolina Gamecocks take the field. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images)
South Carolina football is slated to face one of the nation’s toughest schedules once again in 2021, having matchups scheduled with four teams from the preseason top 15. The Gamecocks battle two teams rated in the top five, while also adding Auburn, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee as teams that don’t enter the year in the polls.
ESPN writer Bill Connelly expanded upon this strength of schedule in his national rankings, which detailed the difficulty of all 130 FBS teams’ slates. South Carolina came in as having the 11th-hardest schedule in the country, while one of the Gamecocks’ archrivals took some heat for falling low on the list.