The AP preseason ranking voted on by media covering college football will be released on Monday Gamecocks on the cuff come in at 27

[FeatheredCock]

The AP preseason ranking voted on by media covering college football will be released on Monday.

USA Today Coaches Pre-Season Poll​

RANK	TEAM	POINTS
1.	Georgia (61)	1,643
2.	Michigan	1,510
3.	Alabama (4)	1,489
4.	Ohio State (1)	1,481
5.	LSU	1,294
6.	USC	1,228
7.	Penn State	1,181
8.	Florida State	1,145
9.	Clemson	1,078
10.	Tennessee	991
11.	Washington	941
12.	Texas	848
13.	Notre Dame	841
14.	Utah	839
15.	Oregon	820
16.	TCU	655
17.	Kansas State	440
18.	Oregon State	365
19.	Oklahoma	320
20.	North Carolina	315
21.	Wisconsin	309
22.	Ole Miss	303
23.	Tulane	225
24.	Texas Tech	200
25.	Texas A&M	196

Others receiving votes: Iowa 169; South Carolina 89; Florida 63; UTSA 59; Pittsburgh 52; UCLA 42; Kentucky 34; Baylor 28; Troy 25; Arkansas 20; NC State 19; Fresno State 19; Boise State 18; Auburn 18; Minnesota 16; Miami 16; Mississippi State 13; Oklahoma State 12; Missouri 11; Maryland 10; SMU 8; South Alabama 8; Illinois 7; Wake Forest 6; Air Force 6; Toledo 5; Washington State 4; Houston 3; Duke 2; BYU 2; Arizona 2; Memphis 1; Kansas 1; James Madison 1.

 

[AikenGameFan]

Glad they got NC as a top 20 team. Means that much more when we beat them. Hoping it goes to their head. They are playing ole SC that ain't even in the top 25. Surprised Clemsux is so high after losing to us and UT at the end of their season.

 

[AikenGameFan]

Looking at some of the reporting today I saw this:
South Carolina football plays the most difficult schedule in the country in 2023.

That is best illustrated by the fact that Carolina will play 3 top-10 teams in the USAToday Coaches Poll (Georgia, Clemson, and Tennessee), 2 more from the top-25 (North Carolina and Texas A&M), and 4 more from the “also receiving votes” group (Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Missouri).

Essentially, this argument says that because 9 of South Carolina football’s 11 games are against good opponents (sorry, Vanderbilt, Furman, and Jacksonville State), tallying more than six or seven wins is just too difficult.

Maybe I still have my Garnet glasses on, but I really feel like we are going to win 9 or 10 this year. If we pull even more unexpected upsets again like last season, maybe we will get 11 wins.
Recruiting has been way better lately, but we still do not have the same talent as Georgia. But that does not mean a game like 2019 won't happen again (we upset #3 UGA in Athens 20-17). Let us win 10 this year and watch what that does for our already good recruiting.

 

[kingofnerf]

What's different about this coming season compared to others is that this is the best recruiting class we've had since the Spurrier years.

The potential is there for a great season, but it just hasn't been proven out yet. Realistically, I think it will, though.

 

[markymark550]

Some of the coaches poll just doesn't make sense to me. Is Texas really a top 15 team? Nothing in their recent history says so. Notre Dame and Texas A&M get hyped every year then fail to live up to expectations. I couldn't rank Clemson ahead of Tennessee based on that bowl game. Is Oklahoma that much improved from a 6-7 season?

 

[Spur's Addiction]

Blueblood schools like ND, Texas A&M, Oklahoma etc, also get a pump in the preseason polls, just based on their history from like 20 years ago.

 

[kingofnerf]

 

[STS]

about the only publicity we have gotten this off season on a national level is that USC had the hardest schedule....personally I think that Beamer is building something here akin to Spurrier back in the late 2000's....it would be nice to see all the pieces come together this year but I get the feeling it will be next year that we see a huge leap in preseason hype

 

[kingofnerf]

I think we're going to see the success with Shane that we expected to have with Will.

The difference in recruiting between the two head coaches is astounding to me.

 

[AikenGameFan]

about the only publicity we have gotten this off season on a national level is that USC had the hardest schedule...

I think our schedule may be a big part of the low rankings. The coaches are not looking at what our standing should be right now. They are considering the whole season.
Standings change every week as they should. I hope by mid-season everyone will have a different opinion of that Beamer led team. Let Rattler come out passing like he did at end of last year and let guys like DJ and Mario burn them up with a new run game, and we might finally get some respect.
At the same time, if our OL or Defense don't stand up to expectations, we may even drop further down.
I think the way our players all seem to be so concentrating on TEAM effort, we may truly be moving up to that level where we will get recognized as a good team.

 

[kingofnerf]

I think our schedule may be a big part of the low rankings. The coaches are not looking at what our standing should be right now. They are considering the whole season.
Standings change every week as they should. I hope by mid-season everyone will have a different opinion of that Beamer led team. Let Rattler come out passing like he did at end of last year and let guys like DJ and Mario burn them up with a new run game, and we might finally get some respect.
At the same time, if our OL or Defense don't stand up to expectations, we may even drop further down.
I think the way our players all seem to be so concentrating on TEAM effort, we may truly be moving up to that level where we will get recognized as a good team.

It has the potential to be a winning, but disappointing, season in terms of the W-L record. However, we could end up easily being in the Top 10 if the team plays well and wins most of its games.

 

[kingofnerf]

One thing I have noticed after doing the countdown the last few years is the difference in the highlights.

Until last year, there were plenty of highlights of plays under 40 yards, but they were against non-conference opponents in games we won, but very little of the same against SEC opponents.

So we're starting to see the same kind of highlights in wins over SEC opponents like we did when Shane's recruits under Spurrier were playing.

There will be some bumps in the road for sure, but overall I believe this going to be a fun season for us.

 

[crowcutta]

aiken i think thats a terrible way for anyone to fill out their ballot. im not a believer in preseason polls anyway but why would you penalize someone for having a harder schedule. i understand a prognostication but that should be different than how you vote during a season. a lot of ppl have disagreed with me in the past but rankings should be earned based on your resume and should fluctuate wildly early in the season instead of where you were ranked last week having any bearing whatsoever on where youre ranked this week.

 

[STS]

if they are based on resume, then obviously there should be no pre-season ranking as these days teams can change significantly from year to year...that being said I don't know where we end the season but we will undoubtedly be ranked based on our record but I would be willing to bet that there will be quite a few teams ranked ahead of us that we could handle who had an easier road to said ranking