Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks get first look at SEC games for 2026-27 schedule
The South Carolina women’s basketball team got a schedule update Tuesday.
The SEC announced home/away designations for each of the Gamecocks’ 16 conference games as well as SEC games for every other league team. Coach Dawn Staley and USC now know which teams they’re playing at Colonial Life Arena and which teams they’ll travel to play on the road.
Highlights include LSU and coach Kim Mulkey visiting Columbia for another round of the league’ more intense rivalry games and a “home-and-home” series with Oklahoma, which dealt South Carolina its only regular-season SEC loss last year. The Gamecocks got revenge by beating OU in last year’s Sweet 16 round.
South Carolina went 36-4 last year and won its fifth straight SEC regular-season title. The Gamecocks were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament but lost in the national championship in blowout fashion for the second year in a row.
With an exciting combination of returning players and true freshmen plus one transfer (Texas guard Jordan Lee), Staley’s Gamecocks ranked No. 1 in ESPN’s post-spring Way Too Early Top 25 for the 2026-27 season.
South Carolina WBB: 2026-27 SEC opponents
Rankings via ESPN’s post-spring Way Too Early Top 25
Home game and road game (1)
- No. 24 Oklahoma
Home game only (7)
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Florida
- No. 17 Kentucky
- No. 10 LSU
- Texas A&M
Road game only (7)
- Georgia
- No. 15 Ole Miss
- Mississippi State
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- No. 11 Vanderbilt
- No. 8 Texas
How SEC WBB schedule gets created
The SEC expanded from 14 to 16 teams with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma in 2024-25. This is the third straight season of the league’s new scheduling format. Each SEC team plays 14 opponents once (home or road) and one opponent twice (home and road) for a total of 16 games.
USC’s previous “home-and-home” opponents under the SEC’s new format were Texas (2024-25) and Alabama (2025-26).
This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 11:21 AM.
