The Associated Press released its initial preseason poll for the 2026 season. Unsurprisingly, the Gamecocks were not ranked inside the Top 25, coming off of a 4-8 season in 2025.
South Carolina did receive 10 votes, along with the Navy Midshipment, who also received 10. Of course, South Carolina being left outside the initial college football rankings is expected. But how have the Gamecocks done historically in the AP Poll? Let's take a look to find out.
For this, we'll look at AP Polls since 2000, to give us over 20 years of a sample size. We will organize this into three categories, including years that South Carlina started unranked but finished ranks, stayed unranked at the start and end of the season and those the Gamecocks started ranked but finished outside of the Top-25.
As you'll see, South Carolina has remained unranked for the majority of seasons it opens unranked. But there have been years the Gamecocks have gone from unranked to finishing the year ranked.
Seasons South Carolina started the year unranked, but finished ranked
- 2024: Started unranked, finished 9-4 and ranked 19th
- 2022: Started unranked, finished 8-5 and ranked 23rd
- 2010: Started unranked, finished 9-5 and ranked 22nd
- 2000: Started unranked, finished 8-4 and ranked 19th
The good news is that this seems to bode well for sixth-year head coach Shane Beamer. He's the only Gamecock head coach in the last two-plus decades to have led South Carolina to ranked finishes after opening the year unranked more than once. The only other South Carolina coaches to do it for a season were Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz.
Spurrier led South Carolina to a 9-5 season in 2010, and even had the Gamecocks ranked as high as 10th in the country at one point during the season. That during his sixth season in Columbia. Aside from the Head Ball Coach, Lou Holtz led South Carolina to an 8-4 finish and No. 19 finish in 2000. It was just one season removed from his first season in Columbia, during which his team went 0-11.
Seasons that South Carolina started unranked and finished there
- 2023: 5-7 season
- 2021: 7-6 season
- 2020: 2-8 season
- 2019: 4-8 season
- 2017: 9-4 season
- 2016: 6-7 season
- 2015: 3-9 season
- 2006: 8-5 season
The one outlier here could be considered the 2017 season. Although the Gamecocks started the season unranked, South Carolina cracked the College Football Playoff Top 25 at No. 24 for one week in late November. Before the annual rivalry game against Clemson on Nov. 25, the Gamecocks were 8-3 and cracked the rankings. But South Carolina's losses to the Tigers dropped the Gamecocks out of the rankings through the end of the season.
- 2025: Preseason No. 13 Season finish: 4-8, unranked
- 2014: Preseason: No. 9 Season finish: 7-6, unranked
- 2002: Preseason: No. 22 Season finish: 5-7, unranked
In 2013, the Gamecocks were coming off of a third-straight 11-win season under head coach Steve Spurrier, and were a preseason Top-10 team. But the Gamecocks finished 7-6, during what was Spurrier's worst finish in five seasons.
It's no secret that no one has a crystal ball when it comes to predicting how a given season will go. While Coach Beamer has built plenty of optimism this offseason thanks to the hire of offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, the offense's returning talent and a re-tooled offensive line.
But the Gamecocks do have one of the hardest schedules in the county, and will face five teams ranked in the initial AP Poll in No. 3 Georgia, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 13 Alabama and No. 20 Tennessee. Only time will tell if Beamer can follow in the footsteps of his own history and lead South Carolina to a bounce back season.
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