As a college football fan, you have to love this time of year as the preseason magazines come out and give a glimpse of what is expected from the various conferences and the teams we love. For the South Carolina football team, the consensus of the preseason rags have USC as a legit top twenty team and picked to finish either one or two in the SEC East.
Here is a recap from TeamSpeedKills that breaks down the SEC teams in relation to the various magazines but for this post, let’s breakdown USC:
Here is how USC is viewed when ranking the team nationally:
| Phil Steele | Sporting News | Lindy’s | Athlon | |
| Gamecocks | 14 | 19 | 11 | 21 |
Here is how they are viewed in regards to finishing in the SEC East:
| Phil Steele | Sporting News | Lindy’s | Athlon | |
| Gamecocks | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Most have either Alabama or LSU representing the West in the SEC Championship pitted against USC. None pick USC to win the crown and Phil Steele has UGa there while Athlon has UF.
So in summary, the Gamecocks are getting respect going into the 2011 season. Most back it up and live up to the hype.
