Was 2025 the worst year of South Carolina men’s sports? What the data shows
A few weeks ago, a South Carolina fan on X posted a graphic that served as a sucker punch to the soul of Gamecock supporters everywhere.
It showed the SEC order of finish for the 2025 football, baseball and men’s basketball seasons. And, well, the worst average finish by a mile was, you guessed it, South Carolina.
The men’s hoops team finished dead last in the conference while the football and baseball teams both finished second to last. The Gamecocks were the only SEC program to not have any of its big three men’s sports make the NCAA Tournament. Heck, South Carolina was the only conference school to have even two men’s programs miss the postseason.
That got us thinking: Could it get any worse? Has it been any worse? Or was 2025 the most-putrid year to be a South Carolina fan? So we dug into the numbers.
Gamecock sports in 2024 were pretty great
But before we get to how the 2025 futility stacked up historically, a positive note: If we wrote this same story a year ago, the entire thing would be flipped. The headline would be “Was 2024 the greatest year of South Carolina’s men’s sports?” And, well, there would have been a pretty darn good argument.
Backed by the winningest regular-season in men’s basketball history (25 victories) and one of the best football seasons in school history, the Gamecocks’ three major male sports all made the NCAA Tournament in the same year ... for the first time ever. Yes — ever.
Even more: The combined 68.5% winning percentage was the third-highest since the end of World War II (1945) — only behind the 2011 (79.7%) and 1975 (88.8%) seasons. Considering South Carolina baseball won a national title and the football program went 11-2, it’s easy to argue that 2011 was the greatest single year for South Carolina’s men’s sports.
That is the positive. Here’s the negative.
A look back at winning percentages
The State went back to 1945 and calculated the winning percentage for the South Carolina football, men’s basketball and baseball teams and then sorted the years by the average winning percentage of the three programs.
The worst years, in order, were: 1963 (28.6%), 1999 (29.3%), 1961 (30.4%), 1960 (30.6%), 1948 (39.9%) and, yep, 2025 (40%).
If you wanted to start the list in 1971 (when the Gamecocks left the ACC and became an independent), the six-worst years become: 1999 (29.3%), 2025 (40%), 2015 (44.2%), 2019 (44.4%), 1995 (44.7%) and 1993 (45.2%).
Aside from the 1993 South Carolina baseball team, every other Gamecock squad in those years missed the NCAA Tournament.
2025 a very bad year for South Carolina men’s sports
No matter how you slice it, 2025 was an atrocious year to root for South Carolina men’s sports.
The men’s basketball team, after setting records in 2024, went 12-20 and was one of only two SEC schools not to make the NCAA Tournament. In head coach Paul Mainieri’s first season, the baseball team (28-29) lost more total games and SEC games than it ever had. And the football squad, which came into the season ranked 13th in the nation, finished 4-8 and only beat one conference foe (Kentucky).
The worst year for USC big three men’s programs?
For as miserable as 2025 was, it was not the worst year for South Carolina’s big three men’s programs. No, that honor belongs to 1999.
How could it not? The football team didn’t win a single game.
Yes, that year will long be remembered for the 0-11 disaster in which Lou Holtz’s team lost only one of those games by one score. But the basketball squad, coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances under Eddie Fogler, went 8-21 despite BJ McKie averaging 17 points a game. And even the baseball team, which went 35-23 and won the SEC East in coach Ray Tanner’s third season, ultimately missed the postseason.
There is an argument for 2025 being the most-disappointing year for South Carolina’s big three men’s sports. But, hey, at least each team won a game.
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
