COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Gamecocks now know the two additional teams they'll be playing this fall in football after the SEC announced its updated schedule Friday.
The Gamecocks learned they will play Auburn at home and Ole Miss on the road. Dates and times have not yet been announced but the season will begin on September 26.
The teams were added because the SEC decided to go to a 10 game, conference only format due to COVID-19. Normally, a team plays an 8 game conference schedule.
The Gamecocks will still play their traditional SEC Eastern Division schedule, featuring Florida, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, as well as Texas A&M, their traditIonal west rival, as well as LSU.
"I'm excited about adding two teams that are very familiar to me personally," said South Carolina head football coach Will Muschamp. "We will travel to Oxford and have Auburn come to Columbia. I have great respect for both programs. They both have great coaching staffs."
The Gamecocks have dropped 10 of their 12 previous matchups with Auburn, with another ending in a tie in a series that dates back to 1930. The Gamecocks lone win in the series was by a 16-14 count in 1933 when the game was played in Birmingham. The teams last met in 2014, a 42-35 Auburn win on the Plains. Coach Muschamp worked as Auburn's defensive coordinator from 2006-07 and again in 2015, then under current Tiger head coach Gus Malzahn.
Carolina has had better success against Ole Miss, splitting 16 games evenly in a series that dates back to 1947. The Gamecocks have won the last three games in the series, including a wild 48-44 decision in Oxford in 2018, the last time the two teams met. The Gamecocks are 3-3 overall when playing at Ole Miss, winning both of their last two trips to Vaught Hemingway Stadium. The Rebels are led by first-year head coach Lane Kiffin.
The Gamecocks' 10-game schedule features five teams ranked among the top-13 in the Coaches' preseason poll, with Georgia (No. 4), LSU (5), Florida (8), Auburn (11) and Texas A&M (13) on the docket.