South Carolina adds 2024 game with 2018 non-conference opponent

By Ben Breiner

Updated May 15, 2019 11:26 AM

South Carolina football and the Akron Zips were brought together in the 2018 season by a hurricane and severe weather that canceled games.

In 2024, the teams will just play the old fashioned way.

Akron announced it will pay a visit to Williams-Brice Stadium on Sept. 21, 2024. Last year’s meeting, a 28-3 victory was first time the programs had ever faced off.

Akron Football to Play South Carolina in 2024https://t.co/3n7xuMwTZh #OurWay | #HereToDevelop pic.twitter.com/15OwrWGBCS
— Akron Zips Football (@ZipsFB) May 15, 2019

“This past year we had the opportunity to play in Columbia and experience one of the classic venues in the SEC,” Akron AD Larry Williams said in a statement. “Athletic Director Ray Tanner and his entire staff really demonstrated that Southern hospitality. So impressed were we that we seized the chance to provide that same experience to a new cohort of Zip student-athletes, some of whom will likely be from a reasonable proximity to Columbia.”

This is the first announced non-conference opponent for USC in 2024 outside of Clemson. That is also the year the Gamecocks draw a road trip to Alabama as a divisional crossover game.

South Carolina’s 2018 game against Marshall was canceled last season because of Hurricane Florence. Akron’s Week 1 game against Nebraska was canceled because of storms that pushed the game deep into the night.

Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner said early on he wanted to reschedule the game, and Akron was the first candidate to get eliminated from its conference title game, opening up the weekend of Dec. 1 last year.