South Carolina’s future football calendar keeps getting shuffled, and the latest tweak pushes the 2027 opener up another week.
A report Friday from FBSchedules said the Gamecocks’ game contract with Furman has been revised, moving next season’s meeting at Williams-Brice Stadium to Aug. 28, 2027. That replaces the previous date of Sept. 4 and gives USC an earlier start to the year as college football adjusts to the NCAA’s new scheduling setup.
The change fits the broader wave of future schedule revisions around the sport. In August, the NCAA released updated bylaws approving a standardized 14-week football season that starts the Thursday before Labor Day, now known as “Week 0,” and runs through the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Schools are also allowed two open weeks each year.
South Carolina has already begun adapting. A few days after the Gamecocks and Bowling Green moved their 2028 opener from Sept. 2 to Aug. 26, USC and Furman made the same kind of move for 2027.
With Furman now set for Aug. 28, South Carolina is lined up to open that season against the Paladins and then either play an SEC opponent on Sept. 4 or take that week as a bye before facing Appalachian State on Sept. 11.
There’s a similar path in 2028. The Gamecocks will begin with Bowling Green on Aug. 26 and play Wofford on Sept. 9, leaving open the possibility of an SEC game in Week 2, moving Wofford up, or using that slot as a bye week.
According to a South Carolina athletics source, there have not yet been any conversations about moving the Wofford game up a week, though that remains a possibility. If that happened, it would give USC two bye weeks during SEC play.
South Carolina is still scheduled to pay Furman $550,000 for the trip to Columbia. The Gamecocks and Paladins have met 50 times, with most of those games coming long ago, and the most recent matchups came in 2010, 2014 and 2023. South Carolina won all three.
The revised future schedule now shows South Carolina opening 2027 with Furman on Aug. 28, then App State on Sept. 11 and Clemson on Nov. 27.
In 2028, the Gamecocks are slated to host Bowling Green State on Aug. 26, Wofford on Sept. 9 and visit Clemson on Nov.
Beyond that, South Carolina’s non-conference slate currently lists App State and Clemson in 2029; East Carolina and Clemson in 2030; Clemson in 2031; at Clemson in 2032; at App State and Clemson in 2033; App State and at Clemson in 2034; and Clemson in 2035.
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