South Carolina Football: National outlet projects Gamecocks’ bowl destination

The college football offseason is full of preseason lists, predictions, and projections, and the time between spring practice and fall camp is the busiest portion of this “talking season” (thanks, Steve Spurrier for naming this ridiculous time on the college football calendar). For the South Carolina football team, projections have varied as some analysts expect the Gamecocks to continue rising through the national ranks, while others believe 2023 will end with a bit of a drop off for the garnet and black.

Betting odds on over/under win totals have been listed between 6 and 7 wins, and national talking heads have predicted anywhere from 6 to 9 wins for Carolina with some hesitant to believe in sustained success for South Carolina and others more optimistic. The nation’s most difficult schedule plays a big role in the variance, but the Gamecocks have some legitimate questions that they must answer on the field in 2023, as well.

Because of the uncertainty in Columbia, even postseason bowl projections are all over the place. Last week, Brett McMurphy of the Action Network picked the Gamecocks to play in the Gasparilla Bowl, a bowl that has never seen an SEC participant with a record better than 7-5. This week, Athlon Sports predicted a better postseason fate for Shane Beamer’s team, although, it might be one that Gamecock fans don’t want to hear.

According to the national outlet, the Gamecocks will play against the Miami Hurricanes in the Reliaquest Bowl. The Reliaquest Bowl was once known as the Hall of Fame Bowl and, most famously, was called the Outback Bowl for many years. The Gamecocks played in the Outback Bowl five different times from 2000-2017.

This past season, when the Gamecocks’ bowl destination was not yet known, Carolina fans were campaigning to go “anywhere but the Outback Bowl” and were very satisfied with being in the Gator Bowl, despite the Outback/Reliaquest Bowl generally being considered a slightly better bowl than the Gator Bowl.

The good news for the fans of the South Carolina football program is that the majority of teams invited to play in the Hall of Fame/Outback/Reliaquest Bowl over the years have been ranked teams. Most ranked teams at the end of the regular season have won at least 8 games, a feat that, if accomplished in 2023, would mean improvement on the field as the 2022 Gamecocks won 8 games despite playing a slightly easier schedule than the 2023 ‘Cocks will.

In South Carolina’s five “recent” trips to the Outback Bowl, the team is 4-1 with wins over Ohio State and Michigan, defeating each team twice. A return trip after the 2023 season would be South Carolina football’s first time playing in the Tampa-based bowl since changing its name to the Reliaquest Bowl. They played in the Hall of Fame Bowl once, a loss to Missouri in 1979.