How ESPN predicts the 2024 season for Shane Beamer's South Carolina football team

Year four of the Shane Beamer era in Columbia begins, at least on the field, in just 12 days. The Gamecocks will welcome the Old Dominion Monarchs to Williams-Brice Stadium for the season opener, kicking off a very important 2024 season for the South Carolina football program.

With another difficult schedule on the docket and a large number of new faces (both on the roster and on the coaching staff), predictions and projections are all over the place for the Gamecocks; if things go well, a ranked finish is possible for USC, but if the new pieces don't fit together as well as intended, things could go south.

One outlet that seemingly has split the difference in its prediction is ESPN. The "worldwide leader" published its offseason FPI (Football Power Index) at the beginning of the summer, and Carolina was projected as the 33rd-best team in the country (12th in the SEC) and predicted a 6-6 finish for Beamer's group.

Now, with a few updates to rosters around the country, ESPN's latest FPI comes in with an almost identical projection. In fact, for the South Carolina Gamecocks, it was identical: 33rd nationally, 12th in the SEC, and a 6-6 record. The FPI does give USC a 61.2% chance to reach that 6-win threshold, a 4.4% chance to make the College Football Playoff, a 0.4% chance to win the SEC, a 0.2% chance to make it to the National Championship Game, and a 0.1% chance to win the College Football Playoff trophy.

Whether ESPN's predictor is correct or not remains to be seen, but there have been some positive developments for the Gamecocks this offseason.

Despite losing some key players (most notably, wide receiver Xavier Legette and quarterback Spencer Rattler), the Carolina coaching staff feels good about their roster as they had a really nice transfer portal haul and a solid 2024 high school recruiting class. The team has increased its overall talent level and drastically bolstered its team depth. Injuries also have been much less a part of the Gamecock story this summer. (Every South Carolina football fan is knocking on wood about this one.)

5 days still separate college football fans from the season, and 12 days stand between most fanbases and their favorite team taking the field. When toe meets leather for the first time, all of the preseason prognostications will fall by the wayside as college football, officially, will be back.

From the end of August through the end of November, each team will have 12 opportunities to shape what their postseason future (or lack thereof) will look like. For the Gamecocks, getting back to a bowl game is the minimum goal of this 2024 season, and doing so could be a nice springboard forward into a better future.