South Carolina’s 2024 football schedule is about to get mixed up ... maybe a whole lot

The SEC sure never misses a moment for an event, huh?

The league will announce its revamped 2024 conference schedule on Wednesday night via a special on the SEC Network. (Only opponents will be revealed — game dates will come later).

With that, South Carolina’s ledger for what will be Shane Beamer’s fourth year in Columbia may look a bit different than it currently stands. So what should Gamecock fans expect? Let’s take a look.

How many games is the SEC football schedule?

Before we get in too deep, a quick rehash:

The Southeastern Conference announced at its league meetings in Florida two weeks ago that it settled on a temporary eight-game league schedule for the 2024 football season — the first in which Texas and Oklahoma will be a part of the SEC. That came amid a fight between schools as to whether they would prefer an eight- or nine-game model on a more permanent basis.

This is all basically happening — in the SEC’s words — because Texas and OU are joining the league a year earlier than initially planned.

Commissioner Greg Sankey and the SEC have now functionally kicked the can down the road another year on a longer-term resolution with this one-year band aid, leaving us with Wednesday night’s festivities to see who South Carolina will face in 2024.

A couple notes on how those matchups might come to be:

• Divisions are gone in 2024, meaning the league isn’t beholden to matching up USC with the current SEC East schools for the bulk of its eight games.

• Traditional rivalry games such as the Iron Bowl and Egg Bowl will almost certainly be included (Sankey said as much in Florida).

• Cross-division permanent rivals from the previous model could go by the wayside. (South Carolina doesn’t have to play Texas A&M under this format.)

The SEC is never one to miss a moment for another TV special. We’ll get that on Wednesday.

Expect South Carolina’s known 2024 SEC schedule to change

That we’re having this discussion about a new-look 2024 schedule comes after Texas and Oklahoma shifted the landscape of college football with their moves to the SEC.

League opponents were already known for the 2024 season under the old scheduling model. The SEC, in theory, can completely ignore that plan to make up the new slate that will include Texas and OU.

South Carolina’s 2024 schedule prior to the SEC’s expansion was supposed to include the following league contests:

• at Alabama

• at Florida

• at Kentucky

• at Vanderbilt

• vs. Missouri

• vs. Texas A&M

• vs. Georgia

• vs. Tennessee

Again, the SEC doesn’t necessarily have to go by what it had on the books before adding Texas and Oklahoma. That means there could be some shake-up in who South Carolina sees on its 2024 schedule when it’s made public on Wednesday night.

Gamecocks will face Texas or Oklahoma in 2024

Most of this is prognosticating, but there are a few fun scenarios to imagine the SEC could hand South Carolina for the 2024 season.

First, per ESPN’s Peter Burns via Twitter: “Each of the SEC teams will play either Texas or Oklahoma once in the upcoming 2024 CFB season. So every SEC team will have Longhorns or Sooners on their 2024 schedule.”

It’d be surprising if USC’s ledger doesn’t include at least a semi-healthy slate of the traditional SEC East teams. It’s probably safe to assume South Carolina will get some combination of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, if only for geographical reasons.

Given Texas and Oklahoma’s additions on the western flank of the SEC footprint, it’s fair to guess Missouri and Texas A&M (RIP Bonham Trophy) come off the schedule under that same rationale. It then largely makes sense to lump the two newcomers into a cohort with Missouri, Texas A&M, Arkansas and perhaps LSU that would comprise the bulk of those teams’ schedules.

If that happens, that would leave four other games to be filled on South Carolina’s schedule.

USC and Mississippi State meet in 2023, making that game less pressing to play a year from now. USC also played Auburn in 2020 and 2021, again, leaving less dire need for that matchup so soon.

Left over is a theoretical bunch to choose from that includes Ole Miss, Alabama and Vanderbilt.

It’s not crazy to imagine the league setting up South Carolina with the Oklahoma — you know, Beamer’s former employer that’s currently coached by ex-Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables. (Hello, TV ratings).

For now, this is all speculation. We’ll get a real answer on Wednesday night.

How to watch 2024 SEC schedule reveal

When: Wednesday; Time — TBD

TV: SEC Network

Streaming: ESPN Plus