South Carolina football fans learn kick time, TV info for first night game of season

Saturday. September 20th. 7:30 PM ET. ESPNU. According to a Monday announcement from the Southeastern Conference, those are the details surrounding South Carolina football's first night game of the season when the Akron Zips make their way South to Williams-Brice Stadium.

The Akron game will give the Gamecock faithful their first opportunity to be under the lights this season. Back in August, the University of South Carolina also revealed that the South Carolina football team will be rocking throwback uniforms when USC takes on the Zips, wearing an updated version of the 1980 threads the Gamecocks wore back when George Rogers won the Heisman Trophy. At this point, it is unclear if the throwbacks will be worn just once or if they will become part of the team's rotation.

No matter what happens between now and gameday, Carolina will be big betting favorites over Akron. The Zips have come to Williams-Brice Stadium once before, a late-scheduled game in 2018 that served as a weather make-up in place of a previously scheduled game against the Marshall Thundering Herd that was canceled due to a hurricane. That meeting was played after the annual rivalry contest against the Clemson Tigers. The Will Muschamp-led Gamecocks beat Akron 28-3 that day on a December afternoon that was soggy from non-stop rain. USC fans hope the 2024 version of the matchup will be equally (or even more) non-competitive.

The Gamecocks have a huge game between now and the Akron game, though. This Saturday, the LSU Tigers are visiting Columbia, and College GameDay is in town. GameDay will begin at 9:00 AM ET and will be aired on ESPN and ESPN and streamed on the ESPN app. The game starts at Noon ET and will be shown on ABC and streamed on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.