COLUMBIA — It's never going to be easy. Especially now, with the SEC moving to nine league games and 2026 being a year after 2025, when a year that looked very conducive to success ended 4-8.

South Carolina's next schedule is not for the faint of heart.

The SEC released the 2026 slate on Dec. 11 and the final six games are as brutal a gauntlet as has been seen in the Gamecocks' SEC life, not that the first six are any picnic. USC won't have much choice but to get some hay in the barn in the first half of the year because trying to qualify for a bowl game facing this second half?

It could be a very, very lean winter (i.e., no postseason for a second straight year).

USC will return from a bye week on Oct. 17 to host Tennessee, then travel to Oklahoma. That's followed by Texas A&M at home

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