How has South Carolina football added so many new players? A rule change helped
Over the past two months, South Carolina football has rejuvenated its roster. The Gamecocks, coming off a 4-8 season in 2025, have already added more than 40 new players.
The first question you might ask: That has to be a record, right?
Somehow, it’s not. Just last year, the Gamecocks brought in 44 new scholarship players — 18 via high school and another 26 from the transfer portal.
But, in a way, that was out of necessity. Following the 2024 season, about 25 scholarship football players graduated or entered the NFL Draft. Another 20 or so entered the transfer portal. In other words: There were plenty of roster spots available.
That was different in 2025. Only about a dozen scholarship players ran out of eligibility following last season. Just two — DBs Brandon Cisse and Jalon Kilgore — entered the NFL Draft. And while it felt like an exodus, the Gamecocks have lost just 18 players to the transfer portal — fewer than after the 2024 season.
In prior years, that would have limited how many newcomers South Carolina could have brought into the program.
But in December, the SEC presidents voted to increase the scholarships available to its football programs from 85 to 105.
“It’s a game-changer,” Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer said of the increase in mid-December. “It makes a big difference. … Also, doing right by your current roster, too, and being able to reward a lot of those guys also.”
Beamer made good on that statement just last week, awarding redshirt senior linebacker Jamian Risher Jr. with a scholarship.
By our best estimate, South Carolina currently has 92 scholarship players on its roster — 51 returnees, 16 incoming freshmen and 25 incoming transfers.
That, though, is an estimation. The Gamecocks have not yet released an official roster, and it can be difficult to tell exactly who’s on scholarship and who’s a walk-on.
In any case, it is pretty clear that South Carolina has been willing to use its extra scholarships to add some depth across its roster.
Just last week, the Gamecocks added a number of players who don’t necessarily have a guaranteed path to playing time, but will be able to increase the competition in their position room.
They added their seventh and eighth offensive line transfers in Armando Nieves (New Mexico State) and Ebubedike Nnabugwu (Missouri State), respectively. South Carolina brought in a fourth scholarship quarterback, Bowling Green transfer Lucian Anderson, and added three more pass catchers: WR Charly Mullaly (Holy Cross), WR DJ Black (UCF) and TE Max Drag (UCF).
If South Carolina was still only able to hand out 85 football scholarships, perhaps the Gamecocks wouldn’t have been able to bring in those guys.
Now the question becomes: Are the Gamecocks going to fill all 105 scholarship slots for the 2026 season?
That seems unlikely. For one, the transfer portal is closed. South Carolina can still recruit those who are already in the portal, but it seems far-fetched to think USC will add 10 or more new transfers.
And then consider this statement from South Carolina AD Jeremiah Donati in December regarding the football team’s scholarship count:
“The question is going to be: The 105 is permissive, right? So do we need 20 more football scholarships?” Donati said. “The challenge for every school is that if you add 20 men’s scholarships, you’re probably going to have to add 20 women’s scholarships. There’s Title IX implications.”
Donati noted that he and Beamer talked through the change and, rather than designate a set-in-stone number, agreed to go through the process and figure out what’s needed.
“Let’s not add 20 just to add 20,” Donati said. “Because the challenge is: It’s not just the scholarship. You probably need to talk about (revenue) sharing and NIL and how that goes alongside it.”
