South Carolina Baseball: Gamecocks disrespected in preseason poll

Expectations are pretty high for South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston's club this season. After advancing to a Super Regional and hosting a Regional as a 1-seed for the first time since 2018 and 2016, respectively, many expect the Gamecocks to take another step forward and compete for one of eight spots in the College World Series in 2024.

National college baseball analysts are picking the Gamecocks to make their way to Omaha this summer, and Perfect Game ranked USC their 13th-best team this preseason, projections that seem reasonable based on the expectations surrounding the garnet and black.

Apparently, not every outlet agrees that the Gamecocks will be that good this season.

Coming in a bit further down than the top-8 or even 13th, South Carolina baseball slides in at the 25th spot in the preseason poll from D1Baseball.

That ranking would put Carolina 8th in the Southeastern Conference. Future SEC team Texas (the Longhorns will be in the league starting this fall, meaning the 2025 season will be their first year of SEC competition) is also above the Gamecocks in D1Baseball's poll. All of the SEC teams in the top-25 were slotted inside the top-19.

The Gamecocks play a gauntlet of a schedule, as usual.

Of the SEC teams in the poll, South Carolina baseball will face off with the Florida Gators (2), Arkansas Razorbacks (3), Vanderbilt Commodores (6), Texas A&M Aggies (8), Tennessee Volunteers (9), and Alabama Crimson Tide (19). The rivals Clemson Tigers and North Carolina Tar Heels (who the Gamecocks will play against in a 3-game series and mid-week game, respectively) both cracked the top-15.

From March 22nd-April 21st, the Gamecocks will play five series in a row against preseason ranked teams, and they will also play the mid-week contest against North Carolina in that stretch, as well.

The entire D1 preseason top-25 can be seen below:

1. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
2. Florida Gators
3. Arkansas Razorbacks
4. LSU Tigers
5. TCU Horned Frogs
6. Vanderbilt Commodores
7. Oregon State Beavers
8. Texas A&M Aggies
9. Tennessee Volunteers
10. Clemson Tigers
11. East Carolina Pirates
12. Duke Blue Devils
13. NC State Wolfpack
14. Virginia Cavaliers
15. North Carolina Tar Heels
16. Texas Longhorns
17. UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos
18. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
19. Alabama Crimson Tide
20. Iowa Hawkeyes
21. Texas Tech Red Raiders
22. UCLA Bruins
23. Northeastern Huskies
24. Kansas State Wildcats
25. South Carolina Gamecocks