South Carolina football: Final bowl projections of who, where Gamecocks will play
COLUMBIA – In a little more than 24 hours, the South Carolina football team will officially find out where it’ll play in a bowl game to close out the 2021 season.
Who the Gamecocks will meet, and in what game, will be announced during the "Selection Sunday" show on ESPN, following the reveal of the four-team College Football Playoff.
South Carolina (6-6) reached bowl eligibility in coach Shane Beamer’s first season at the helm with a 21-17 win against Auburn a couple of weeks ago. It marked for the first time in three years that USC has put together at least a six-win and bowl-eligible campaign.
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The Southeastern Conference has a record 13 teams bowl eligible in 2021, but only nine primary tie-ins for bowl games. And while one eligible team somewhere in FBS will not receive a bowl bid — 83 eligible teams for 82 possible spots — it’ll a forgone conclusion USC won't be that program.
So where do the Gamecocks fit in during the postseason, according to the final week of bowl projections?
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Most have seen Beamer’s team playing in one or two bowl games: the Birmingham Bowl (Dec. 28) in Birmingham, Alabama, or the Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Dec. 30) in Charlotte.
North Carolina remains the most predicted opponent for USC in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, while Virginia and Virginia Tech also have been listed. A game against the Hokies would set up a plethora of story lines with Beamer facing off against the former team of his father and Hall of Famer, Frank.
The Birmingham Bowl projections have included several opponents, including Air Force, Houston and Tulsa.
ESPN experts, meanwhile, are predicting South Carolina landing at the Liberty Bowl (Dec. 28) in Memphis, Tennessee, taking on a Big 12 opponent. Two projected foes are Kansas State and West Virginia.
Two longer shots for the Gamecocks being projected by national pundits are the First Responder Bowl (Dec. 28), which does not have a primary or secondary SEC tie-in, in Dallas against Virginia and the Gator Bowl (Dec. 31), which does have a SEC tie-in but usually reserved for a team with a slightly better overall record, against Wake Forest.
Cory Diaz covers the South Carolina Gamecocks for The Greenville News as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his work for all things Gamecocks on Twitter: @CoryDiaz_TGN
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina football: What final bowl projections say
