COLOMBIA – The football season as it is known may not happen this fall and, if it does, the schedule is projected as an abbreviated version of the original plan.
Although men’s and women’s basketball are in the same boat as soccer, with unknown complications from the coronavirus pandemic creating doubts about whether and when these seasons can begin, they at least have more time to get more answers before playing. While ideas on how to start the season sooner or later, or work on a long break in the middle of the season to fight an expected increase in COVID-19 in November / December, are being considered, South Carolina continues to push its schedules of non-conferences for men and women towards completion.
A viable list can configure the appearance of the NCAA
Frank Martin’s ninth season has nine known opponents and six known dates, with an incredible chance of a win that reinforces his reputation. The USC will play in Houston this season as the SEC / American Athletic Conference Alliance return game that started last year when the Cougars arrived in Columbia.
Houston ceded USC 76-56 last year and went on to post a 23-8 record, ending in a three-way tie for the first in the AAC (the Cougars were the second seed in the canceled AAC tournament). The Gamecocks’ non-conference schedule is incomplete, but Houston’s game this year should be his best chance of a notable victory.
The USC can play nine games in addition to its four-game list in the Hall of Fame Classic, which will start with home games against Radford (November 12, the first known game) and Western Carolina (November 19). USC will join TCU, Northwestern and California in Kansas City for the HOF Classic championship rounds from November 23-24.
The Gamecocks will end a three-year series with Coastal Carolina playing in Conway on December 1st and travel to George Washington on December 14th. Games hosting Rider, SC State and Army have been announced and the annual series of rivalry with Clemson will continue in Columbia this year.
The Army, a member of the Patriot League, can be an opponent where the USC has to turn. The conference canceled its fall sports schedule last week in response to COVID, but did not issue a decision on basketball or its other winter sports.
Gamecocks still need some opponents, but they must be scheduled in order to achieve various details. Martin has always wanted to put one or two big names on the list of ticket holders for the season and for the NCAA Tournament selection committee. At the same time, he wants to schedule games that Gamecocks must win.
The USC has arguably lost to the worst team on its off-conference schedule in each of the past three years (Illinois State, Wyoming, Stetson). These losses alone did not prevent the post-season USC, but they did make the Gamecocks fight uphill the rest of the way. Even solid SEC seasons failed to bring USC along the way after non-conference seasons.
“We cannot be Jekyll and Hyde. You can’t be both, ”said Martin after last season’s loss to Stetson, which followed a turnaround by the current national champion, Virginia. “Obviously, today, we change our personality again.”
Oregon; Oregon again?
Dawn Staley has hurt throughout the past season that her Gamecocks, who finished first in each of the top 25 polls, did not receive the credit they deserved. His complaint was that the national media talked about one team and only one team – Oregon, led by National Player of the Year Sabrina Ionescu.
Nothing wipes that out, but Staley lobbied to take the fight to Oregon in the 2020-21 season. A team spokesman confirmed in May that the plan was to play the Ducks in Eugene as the start of a two-year series.
And Gamecocks can catch Ducks again. Oregon and USC are scheduled to participate in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament for eight teams in the Bahamas.
“We will try to open the season next year playing in Oregon,” said Staley in May, while warning that a signed contract had to be in hand before they could officially announce it.
USC returns three holders of last year’s team that would have been the seed in the NCAA tournament, had it been played. So far, Staley has lined up a challenging non-conference list.
In addition to the trip to Oregon and the Bahamas, the USC will continue a series with Maryland, hosting the Terrapins on an unknown date, and will travel to Connecticut. The Gamecocks beat the Huskies for the first time last season in a series that will enter its seventh year in 2020-21.
Gamecocks have played 11 games outside the conference and one tournament in each of the past two seasons, so there are still many unknown games. But the USC will play a game back in South Dakota after the Coyotes visited Columbia last year, and travel to Iowa for a game on December 6 in the Big 12 / SEC Challenge.
USC will host Clemson in pursuit of his 11th consecutive win in the series, which would extend the longest winning streak for both sides in the rivalry. Gamecocks could also extend their series with Duke, after starting in 2014-15 and playing all seasons except 2017-18, when snow conditions prevented USC from traveling to Durham.
Gamecocks would likely play Duke this year if the game gets on the schedule. USC defeated the Blue Devils 89-46 in Columbia last year.
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter @DCPandC.