South Carolina is still hanging around the College Football Playoff picture, even if the road ahead looks brutal.
When the first 2026 CFP rankings dropped Tuesday night on ESPN, the selection committee placed the Gamecocks at No. 21.
That puts USC two spots ahead of where it landed in this week’s AP poll, where it checked in at No. 23.
The ranking comes after a sharp turnaround for South Carolina, which opened SEC play with three straight losses before flipping the script with three consecutive wins over Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma. That run has pushed the Gamecocks to 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the SEC, and at least kept their name in the playoff conversation.
The conversation, though, is a complicated one.
To have any real shot at reaching the 12-team field, South Carolina would need to finish the regular season unbeaten against Texas A&M, Arkansas, No. 2 Georgia and Clemson.
Even that might not be enough. The Gamecocks would also need several of the six two-loss SEC teams to lose again, then hope their own résumé holds up when the committee sorts through the mess.
For now, South Carolina stands as the highest-ranked three-loss team in the country. Even so, only two other three-loss teams made the CFP list: Oregon at No. 23 and Florida at No. 24, both sitting at 5-3.
The Gamecocks have been here before, at least in the rankings sense. In 2024, South Carolina climbed to No. 14 after beating Clemson and locking up a nine-win season. That year, USC didn’t show up in the CFP rankings at the start, but eventually broke into the Top 25 after a road win at Vanderbilt in early November.
Here’s how the committee’s first Top 25 shook out:
Miami (8-0)
Georgia (7-1)
Utah (8-0)
Indiana (8-1)
Alabama (6-2)
Kentucky (7-1)
Texas (6-2)
UCLA (8-0)
BYU (7-1)
Ole Miss (6-2)
Notre Dame (7-1)
Ohio State (6-2)
Tennessee (6-2)
LSU (6-2)
Texas Tech (7-1)
Wake Forest (7-1)
Houston (6-2)
Missouri (6-2)
Iowa (6-2)
Southern Cal (7-2)
South Carolina (5-3)
Arizona (6-2)
Oregon (5-3)
Florida (5-3)
Boise State (7-1)
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Stetson comes in with its own opening-night test, having already drawn Clemson in its season opener and coming off an exhibition loss to Florida. For South Carolina, the first night is about more than just getting a result on the board - it is an early opportunity to establish the tone at home before the schedule starts asking more of them. [Read more 🡒]