Game dates set: First look at South Carolina’s loaded 2024 football schedule
In the middle of transfer-portal hysteria, we now have a better understanding of when and where guys like Rocket Sanders will be playing in 2024.
While the opponents have been set since June, game dates weren’t known until Wednesday night when the SEC unveiled its entire football schedule for next year.
“I’m excited for #GamecockNation to see” the schedule, head coach Shane Beamer posted to X (formerly Twitter) earlier Wednesday. “You’re going to LOVE it.”
Beamer will be in his fourth year of coaching the Gamecocks. As is always the case, South Carolina does not have it easy — with back-to-back road games against Alabama and Oklahoma among the major pieces of next year’s slate.
This is the first SEC schedule that eliminates divisions and includes Texas and Oklahoma. The conference ensured that all 14-returning teams had the opportunity to play either the Sooners or Longhorns. South Carolina will head to Norman on Oct. 19 and play Oklahoma for the first time ever.
The other marquee road game comes when South Carolina will play Alabama on week earlier on Oct. 12 in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 2009, when the Steve-Spurrier-led Gamecocks lost 20-6. The Crimson Tide will be coming off a berth in the College Football Playoff.
The home schedule is a mixed bag for South Carolina. It includes two Group-of-5 teams — Old Dominion (Aug. 31) and Akron (Sept. 21) as well as in-state FCS foe Wofford in the season’s penultimate week (Nov. 23). Along with that, though, the Gamecocks will host Clemson on the final Saturday of the season and also play two of the best teams in the SEC at Williams-Brice Stadium.
LSU, which hasn’t traveled to Columbia since 2008, will play the Gamecocks on Sept. 14 in Columbia. Ole Miss, which hasn’t made the trip since 2009, will face South Carolina on Oct. 5.
SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum called South Carolina’s three-game stretch in October — against Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma — as the most difficult of any team at first glance. He called the stretch “brutal.”
The Gamecocks begin SEC play when they travel to face Kentucky in Week 2. That’s the earliest date USC has faced the Wildcats on the schedule.
South Carolina also won’t play Georgia, Tennessee or Florida in 2024. Also interesting: Because the season starts so early, every school will receive two bye weeks. South Carolina, which is coming off a 5-7 season, will have byes Sept. 28 and Oct. 26 following the games against Akron and Oklahoma, respectively.
How things look in 2025 and beyond is still to be determined as the SEC decides on a new scheduling model to account for the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.
SOUTH CAROLINA’S 2024 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sat. Aug. 31 — vs. Old Dominion
Sat. Sept. 7 — at Kentucky
Sat. Sept. 14 — vs. LSU
Sat. Sept. 21 — vs. Akron
Sat. Sept. 28 — OPEN DATE
Sat. Oct. 5 — vs. Ole Miss
Sat. Oct. 12 — at Alabama
Sat. Oct. 19 — at Oklahoma
Sat. Oct. 26 — OPEN DATE
Sat. Nov. 2 — vs. Texas A&M
Sat. Nov. 9 — at Vanderbilt
Sat. Nov. 16 — vs. Missouri
Sat. Nov. 23 — vs. Wofford
Sat. Nov. 30 — at Clemson
This story was originally published December 13, 2023 at 7:26 PM.
