South Carolina has been a consensus top 20 team in most offseason projections ahead of the 2025 season. Some analysts have pushed Shane Beamer’s team as a top-12 unit in the country. With that, the Gamecocks have been part of many College Football Playoff discussions.
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On Friday, CBS Sports and Yahoo Sports analyst Adam Breneman posted his prediction for the 2025 College Football Playoff, and South Carolina made the cut. According to Breneman, the Gamecocks will go 9-3 again this season. This time, though, that record will be enough to get USC into the 12-team field.
Breneman has Carolina as the CFP’s No. 11 overall seed (the final at-large bid), matching up with the No. 6 Texas Longhorns in the first round. The winner of the SEC vs. SEC showdown would face another SEC team in the quarterfinals. The Alabama Crimson Tide–a team already on the schedule earlier in the year–would be waiting with a potential matchup against the rival Clemson Tigers (or Illinois Fighting Illini or LSU Tigers) in the semifinal. A game against either Tigers would be a rematch, too.
In addition to the game’s stakes, there would be added intrigue for South Carolina against any of those semifinal opponents. Clemson is…well, Clemson, and the Palmetto State’s rivalry is one of the biggest in the sport. South Carolina and Illinois played in the 2024 Citrus Bowl and left with newfound hostilities. LSU is an SEC rival, and the 2024 matchup (and its questionable officiating) kept USC out of last year’s CFP.
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Breneman, who was an All-American tight end at UMass and an assistant coach at Arizona State, has been buying into South Carolina for a while. As the Gamecocks began their late-season surge in 2024, Breneman was one of the voices arguing in favor of USC’s postseason resume.
South Carolina’s road to making their first College Football Playoff begins on Sunday, August 31st. The Gamecocks will take on the Virginia Tech Hokies in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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