Sporting News projects South Carolina Gamecocks in Gator Bowl
By Sydney Hunte
It looks like The Sporting News isn’t buying the notion that the South Carolina Gamecocks will be participating in a playoff bowl in 2014.
TSN published their annual bowl projections today, and they are projecting Carolina in the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl going up against Miami (Fla.) as part of its prediction of thirty-nine bowl game matchups, including the semifinals (Oklahoma over Alabama in the Rose Bowl Game and Oregon topping Florida State in the Sugar Bowl) and the National Championship (Oklahoma vs. Oregon).
Other SEC teams on the list:
Mizzou in the AdvoCare Texas Bowl (vs. Kansas State)
Ole Miss in the Belk Bowl (vs. North Carolina)
Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl (vs. Louisville) Mississippi State in the Independence Bowl (vs. Syracuse)
Florida in the Liberty Bowl (vs. TCU)
Georgia in the Outback Bowl (vs. Wisconsin)
Tennessee in the Birmingham Bowl (vs. East Carolina)
LSU in the Outback Bowl (vs. Nebraska)
Auburn in the Peach Bowl (vs. UCF)
From the looks of it, TSN feels Alabama will dominate the SEC as usual, and aren’t slotting the Gamecocks as a top-four team–at least not yet. It’s too early to predict, anyway, but it’s interesting to see what the thinking is from at least one major publication.