![SEC commissioner Greg Sankey signed a contract extension to keep him as the head of the league through 2028. Syndication/Tuscaloosa News. Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/a207913d2846b63a19184aadf50a16a1d4dce7607a07f9ced7b33e0d161c916d.jpg "SEC commissioner Greg Sankey signed a contract extension to keep him as the head of the league through 2028. Syndication/Tuscaloosa News. Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]")
DraftKings is one of the top sports betting sites out there, especially for college sports. Now that spring practice is done, DraftKings and other outlets have been expeditiously publishing their updated rankings, projections, and expectations for the 2023 season. For South Carolina football and its nation-leading strength of schedule, these projections are a little bit all over the place, and DraftKings is a little lower on the Gamecocks in their latest over/under win projections for the 2023 season.
The Gamecocks were listed with an over/under of 6.5 wins. For those unfamiliar with how over/under totals work, this essentially means that the experts at DraftKings and their formulaic algorithms project Carolina to win either 6 or 7 games in most of their projections, so, in order to create a simple bet, the book creates an over/under of 6.5. If a bettor believes South Carolina will win 6 games or less, they would bet the “under.” If a bettor believes the Gamecocks will win 7 games or more, they would bet the “over.”
Here are DraftKings’ SEC over/under totals:
Georgia: over/under 11.5 wins
Alabama: over/under 10.5 wins
LSU: over/under 9.5 wins
Tennessee: over/under 9.5 wins
Ole Miss: over/under 7.5 wins
Texas A&M: over/under 7.5 wins
Arkansas: over/under 7 wins
South Carolina: over/under 6.5 wins
Mississippi State: over/under 6.5 wins
Missouri: over/under 6.5 wins
Auburn: over/under 6.5 wins
Kentucky: over/under 6.5 wins
Florida: over/under 5.5 wins
Vanderbilt: over/under 3.5 wins
Other notable teams on the Gamecocks’ schedule that were included in DraftKings’ projections included Clemson (over/under 9.5 wins) and North Carolina (over/under 8.5 wins). This means that South Carolina is, according to DraftKings, slated to finish with a worse record than 5 teams on their 2023 schedule and the same record as 3 others.
The Gamecocks are a better overall team than all three opponents with which they share an over/under win total. However, Carolina has a couple of really big holes on the roster (primarily at defensive end and running back). If the Gamecocks can clean up some of that through the transfer portal (and Coach Beamer hinted at one of his Welcome Home Tour stops that good news might be coming soon), perhaps their projected win total will tick up a bit.