Night kickoff time, TV channel set for South Carolina’s home football game vs. Akron
The South Carolina football team has an official kickoff time for its home game against the Akron Zips next weekend in Williams-Brice Stadium.
The SEC announced Monday that USC will kick off vs. Akron at 7:30 pm. ESPNU will broadcast the Saturday, Sept. 21 game.
This will be the Gamecocks’ first night game of the season. Under the guidelines of its new TV deal, the SEC announced “game time windows” for USC games in June and revealed that the Akron game would be during the night window (6 to 8 p.m.) but no specifics. Those will continue to be announced 10 days before games.
Of note: As of Monday, the Sept. 21 South Carolina-Akron will not be available on television or streaming for DirecTV subscribers. That popular cable provider — which, per USA TODAY, has about 11 million subscribers — is entering its second week of a contract dispute with Disney, which owns ESPN, ABC and the ESPN family of channels (including ESPNU).
Those channels are currently blacked out for DirecTV subscribers after the two companies’ contract expired Sept. 1. It’s possible the two sides reach a deal before that game, though.
Coach Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks (2-0) upset Kentucky on the road last week as a 9.5-point underdog and have a huge home game against No. 16 LSU this weekend. ESPN’s “College GameDay” is making the trip and will broadcast live from Columbia ahead of the game between the Tigers and Gamecocks (noon, ABC).
Akron, a MAC school based in Ohio, is 0-2 so far this season with road losses to No. 3 Ohio State and Rutgers. The Zips play Colgate, an FCS team, at home this week.
Akron is one of four non-conference teams USC will play in 2024. South Carolina beat Old Dominion of the Sun Belt Conference in a Week 1 nail-biter and also hosts in-state FCS opponent Wofford on Nov. 23 before facing rival Clemson on the road in their annual rivalry game Nov. 30.
SEC football Week 4 games
Saturday, September 21
- Florida at Mississippi State: noon, ESPN
- Ohio at Kentucky, 12:45 p.m. (SECN)
- Arkansas at Auburn: 3:30 p.m. or 4:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or SECN)
- UCLA at No. 16 LSU: 3:30 p.m. or 4:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or SECN)
- Vanderbilt at No. 6 Missouri: 3:30 p.m. or 4:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or SECN)
- No. 7 Tennessee at No. 15 Oklahoma: 7:30 p.m., ABC
- Akron at South Carolina: 7:30 p.m., ESPNU
- Bowling Green at Texas A&M: 7:30 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+
- Georgia Southern at No. 5 Ole Miss: 7:45 p.m., SECN
- UL Monroe at No. 2 Texas: 8 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+
2024 Gamecocks schedule
- Aug. 31 – South Carolina 23, Old Dominion 19
- Sept. 7 – South Carolina 31, Kentucky 6
- Sept. 14 – vs. LSU – Noon, ABC
- Sept. 21 – vs. Akron – 7:30 p.m., ESPNU
- Oct. 5 – vs. Ole Miss – TBA (flex)
- Oct. 12 – at Alabama – Noon, ABC —OR— ESPN
- Oct. 19 – at Oklahoma – TBA (early)
- Nov. 2 – vs. Texas A&M – TBA (night)
- Nov. 9 – at Vanderbilt – TBA (afternoon)
- Nov. 16 – vs. Missouri – TBA (afternoon)
- Nov. 23 – vs. Wofford – 4 p.m., SEC Network+/ESPN+
- Nov. 30 – at Clemson – TBA
This story was originally published September 9, 2024 at 1:01 PM.
