With Texas and Oklahoma now in a beefed-up SEC, can South Carolina be competitive?

Last week after SEC Media Days concluded in Dallas, South Carolina was picked to finish 13th in the SEC preseason media poll.

The Gamecocks knew this was coming. At the podium last Monday, Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer told reporters he knew his squad was going to be slotted among the bottom four of the conference’s 16 teams.

A year ago, the Gamecocks were picked to finish third in the SEC East. That was before South Carolina went 5-7 and missed a bowl. It was also before Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC, adding talent to the top of the conference.

In a new, beefed-up SEC, the preseason media poll proved not many believe the Gamecocks will compete this season. But what about going forward? Can South Carolina still stand out? Can they still compete in this SEC?

At SEC Media Days, we asked national writers, TV personalities and pundits for their thoughts. Here’s what they said.

Alyssa Lang, ESPN/SEC Network: It’s gonna be challenging for everyone. … Every team, when you play in the SEC, absolutely has a chance. So the two things that are on South Carolina’s side: No more divisions in the SEC and, obviously, the expanded playoff. I mean, with no divisions, you don’t necessarily have to eyeball and do the math — like, if you’re the second best team in the SEC East or the second best team in the SEC West, you still might be better than the person on the other side who’s actually playing in the SEC championship game.

So for South Carolina, it’s truly — as cliché as it sounds — about taking care of business. Getting a couple (victories in) those games on the road that maybe you weren’t predicted to win, which, again, I think South Carolina is built to make that run. It’s just a matter of OK, what do they look like within the first couple of weeks this season? Conference play comes early — that Kentucky game (in Week 2) is going to tell us a lot about this team — how put together do they look? And how early do they look like a team that could compete?

Josh Pate, 247Sports: You’ve just got to define what South Carolina is. In a sense, it’s no different than what Texas has to do, or what Georgia has to do. You may look at (Texas and Georgia) and say, “Wow, they’ve got deeper pockets,” or “Wow, they’ve got more tradition to sell.” That may be true, but at the end of the day they’re having to sell what their program is. It’s not about paying the biggest dollar figure, because those classes fall apart all the time and those teams fall apart all the time. You’ve got to sell what you are. So at South Carolina, the focus should never be, “Do we compare apples to apples to everyone else.” It’s “Let’s define who we are and what we are. We’re gonna roll the dice that there are at least 25, 27 kids per recruiting cycle who are fits here, who believe in that. Now it’s up to us to go get them.”

Andy Staples, On3 Sports: The (Steve) Spurrier-era teams that won 11 games — those teams would have been very competitive in this version of the SEC. Those teams have great players. Now, you do have to get Jadeveon Clowney, Stephon Gilmore, Alshon Jeffery-level players, but Shane Beamer has done that on occasion. You just have to do that more often. And, you know, a lot of the dynamics of that changed obviously as Dabo (Swinney) built up Clemson … There’s no secret to it. You’ve got to be able to get that level of player, which is going to be very hard with Georgia being where they are. And Alabama being where they are. And Florida trying to get back. And Auburn with Hugh Freeze recruiting well. And then you add in the other school in the state, that isn’t in the conference, that’s also really good.

Ross Dellenger, Yahoo Sports: I mean, you look at the new model of college athletics coming with the revenue sharing stuff. And, you know, it’s supposed to provide a degree of stability, and maybe even some parity. For a program like South Carolina — and all those that are in the middle or lower pack of the leagues in the Power 4 — it should be beneficial. We don’t exactly know how it’s gonna work. … But you would hope that having basically a salary cap, sharing revenue with athletes and having some stability there, would help programs like South Carolina.

Greg McElroy, ESPN/SEC Network: Yeah, of course. … If Washington can get within a quarter of winning the national championship, anything is possible. … Washington and Michigan didn’t have the most talent in the country (McElroy also mentioned that Beamer has recruited well, but instead of snagging two top-tier, immediate-impact recruits every cycle, “they might need seven)