South Carolina men’s soccer shifting to new conference. Here are the details
The South Carolina men’s soccer team is no longer in limbo.
Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill announced Wednesday that the conference will sponsor men’s soccer and the Gamecocks will be one of nine teams competing in the league.
The nine teams will include: James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion, Coastal Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and South Carolina.
Because the SEC doesn’t sponsor men’s soccer, the Gamecocks have competed in Conference USA since 2005. But a wave of conference realignment last fall sapped C-USA of the majority of its members, with six schools defecting to the American Athletic Conference and three joining the Sun Belt.
The Gamecocks will follow Marshall — the 2020 men’s soccer national champions — Old Dominion and Southern Miss to the Sun Belt. Fellow SEC school Kentucky, the only other SEC school to play men’s soccer, will also make the jump.
“We are excited to join the Sun Belt Conference in men’s soccer,” athletic director Ray Tanner said in an official release. “We think this decision gives our team a competitive schedule, regional travel advantages and opportunity for our program to be successful on a national level. We are excited the direction (Tony) Annan is taking the program and look forward to this transition.”
The move represents yet another significant change for the Gamecock’s soccer team. After founding the program in 1978, head coach Mark Berson retired before the 2021 season, and USC hired Annan as its second head coach in program history.
Annan, who spent six years with Major League Soccer club Atlanta United before coming to Columbia, led the Gamecocks to a 5-9-2 record in Year 1. Now he’ll need to prepare the Gamecocks to face brand new conference opponents in the Sun Belt.
“This could be the strongest conference in the country,” Annan said Wednesday. “This could be an ideal place for a student-athlete. ... I think we’ll show the rest of the country that this is how a conference should operate.”
The Gamecocks have spent most the program’s existence competing as an independent. Other than a brief stint in the Metro Conference in 1993-94, the Gamecocks maintained their independence up until joining C-USA in 2005.
USC men’s soccer conference schedule
September 24 – vs. Georgia Southern
October 1 – at West Virginia
October 8 – vs. Marshall
October 15 – at Coastal Carolina
October 19 – at Old Dominion
October 23 – vs. James Madison
October 28 – at Georgia State
November 1 – vs. Kentucky
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 12:10 PM.
