Last week, veteran sports writer Brett McMurphy joined the team at On3. It didn’t take him long to release his first set of bowl projections for the 2025 season. Though a number of national pundits believe South Carolina football could wind up in the College Football Playoff, McMurphy is not one of them.
According to On3’s newest voice, the CFP field (in seed order, 1-12) will be made up of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Penn State Nittany Lions, Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes, Texas Longhorns, Clemson Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers, Oregon Ducks, Miami Hurricanes, Utah Utes, and Boise State Broncos. He has USC comfortably on the outside looking in, playing in Memphis in the Liberty Bowl against the Baylor Bears.
If McMurphy’s projection proves prophetic, the Gamecocks would play on January 2nd in Memphis’ Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
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A trip to the Liberty Bowl would be South Carolina’s first since in 20 seasons. Steve Spurrier’s second team won a thrilling 44-36 affair against the Houston Cougars following the 2006 season. The only other Memphis bowl trip for the ‘Cocks came in 1988, an ugly performance against the Indiana Hoosiers.
A Liberty Bowl berth also would likely mean a bit of a disappointing year for South Carolina. The bowl has taken just one ranked SEC team in the last 30 years, No. 24 Missouri in 2018. Only three total ranked teams have played in the game since the Gamecocks’ last appearance. The last three SEC teams invited to Memphis entered the game with 6-6 or 7-5 records.
South Carolina hasn’t played against Baylor since 1976, a win for the Bears. Baylor owns the all-time series 2-1, also beating the Gamecocks in 1949. While Baylor is undefeated in the two contests in Waco, Carolina won the only game in Columbia in 1975.
