No. 20 USC trending toward Florida bowl game after eight-win season, Clemson victory

South Carolina football’s regular season officially ended with the team posting an 8-4 record.

The Gamecocks defeated three ranked teams during the course of the season — Kentucky, Tennessee and Clemson — and reached the Top 25 themselves after Saturday’s 31-30 win against the rival Tigers.

Like last week, many bowl projections for USC have the team playing in Florida.

Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach of ESPN have the Gamecocks going to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Dec. 30. Both Bonagura and Schlabach predict the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as USC’s opponent. The Gator Bowl kicks off at 3:30 on ESPN in Jacksonville.

Notre Dame (8-4) was ranked No. 19 in the most recent Associated Press poll.

College Football News and 247Sports’ Brad Crawford both project the Gamecocks to play Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl as well. South Carolina has not played in the Gator Bowl since 1987.

Jerry Palm of CBS has South Carolina in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa with Illinois as the opponent. That bowl — formerly the Outback Bowl — will be played on Jan. 2 at noon on ESPN2.

Brett McMurphy of Action Network also placed the Gamecocks against the Fighting Illini in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

The Twitter account for the Citrus Bowl — played in Orlando — teased the idea of South Carolina playing there. The team played in that game, when it was known as the Capital One Bowl, after the 2011 and 2013 seasons.

Bowl placements will be announced this Sunday.