The South Carolina Gamecocks enter the 2025 college football season ranked No. 13 in both the preseason Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Top 25. But a closer look at the AP's individual ballots for voters show just how divided the national media is on Shane Beamer's squad.
While more than half of the AP voters placed South Carolina inside their top 15, eight voters left them completely unranked. On the other hand, four voters placed the Gamecocks inside the top 10, signaling a wide gap in perception heading into the 2025 season.
AP Voters Ranking the Gamecocks the Highest:
No. 10
- Bob Ballou – CBS Austin (Austin, Texas)
- Chris Murray – Nevada Sports Net (Reno, Nevada)
- Creg Stephenson – Alabama Media Group (Theodore, Alabama)
- Garland Gillen – WVUE-TV Fox 8 (New Orleans, Louisiana)
No. 11
- Alex Taylor – Wyoming Tribune Eagle (Laramie, Wyoming)
- Bob Asmussen – Champaign News-Gazette (Champaign, Illinois)
- Brenna Greene – KOIN TV (Portland, Oregon)
- Damien Sordelett – The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Virginia)
- Dave Preston – WTOP Radio (Washington, D.C.)
- Jerry Humphrey – AL.com (Auburn, Alabama)
- Keith Farmer – WLEX-TV (Lexington, Kentucky)
- Michael Lev – Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona)
- Mike Hill – Fox Sports (Los Angeles, California)
- Randy Johnson – Minneapolis Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
- Robert Cessna – Bryan-College Station Eagle (College Station, Texas)
- Stephen Means – Cleveland.com (Cleveland, Ohio)
- Steven Johnson – Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Arlington, Texas)
- Zach Klein – WSB-TV (Atlanta, Georgia)
Other Top 15 Votes
- No. 12: Andy Yamashita, Eric Hansen, Joe Arruda, Johnny McGonigal, Jordan McPherson, Julian Mininsohn, Nichole Auerbach, Scott Hamilton, Shaun Goodwin, Spencer Ripchik
- No. 13: Blair Kerkhoff, David Briggs, Henry Greenstein, Louie Vaccher, Mason Young
- No. 14: Chad Bishop, Ian Kress, Pete Yanity
- No. 15: Brian Howell, Brian Fonseca, David Paschall, Jamal St. Cyr
Voters Leaving the Gamecocks Unranked
There were eight AP voters did not include South Carolina in their preseason ballot:
Brett McMurphy – On3 (Tampa, Florida)
- Rece Davis – ESPN (Bristol, Connecticut)
- Dylan Sinn – The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
- Josh Furlong – KSL-TV (Salt Lake City, Utah)
- Greg Madia – The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia)
- Kate Rogerson – WTVD-TV (Raleigh, North Carolina)
- Haley Sawyer – Southern California News Group (Los Angeles, California)
- Mike Jacques – WMTV-TV (Madison, Wisconsin)
Complete AP Preseason Top 25 (First-Place Votes)
1. Texas (25)
2. Penn State (23)
3. Ohio State (11)
4. Clemson (4)
5. Georgia (1)
6. Notre Dame
7. Oregon (1)
8. Alabama
9. LSU
10. Miami
11. Arizona State
12. Illinois
13. South Carolina
14. Michigan
15. Florida
16. SMU
17. Kansas State
18. Oklahoma
19. Texas A&M
20. Indiana
21. Ole Miss
22. Iowa State
23. Texas Tech
24. Tennessee
25. Boise State
Also receiving votes were: BYU, Utah, Baylor, Louisville, USC, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Tulane, Nebraska, UNLV, Toledo, Auburn, James Madison, Memphis, Florida State, Duke, Liberty, Navy, Iowa, TCU, Pittsburgh, Army, Colorado, Louisiana-Lafayette