South Carolina will know soon whether or not the Gamecocks are going bowling this offseason.

Ray Tanner, on an appearance Wednesday with Jay Phillips and Pearson Fowler, said South Carolina is hopeful it will get a bowl bid Sunday and know where the team will spend its holiday season.

“We should know on Sunday,” Tanner said on 107.5 FM. “The song I’ll be home for Christmas may not be the case but we’ll still have the music. We’re looking forward to it.”

Despite a 2-8 record, the Gamecocks are in line to go to a bowl in large part because there aren’t enough teams to fill bowl slots and the NCAA waived bowl game requirements this season.

The SEC has a certain number of bowl slots that varies based on how many teams make the College Football Playoff and how many at-large bids other SEC teams get to New Year’s Six bowls.

Because of that, there could be a scenario where there are 12 slots to fill with SEC teams. South Carolina brought its team back this week in preparations for a bowl bid that could come this week.

“As we sit here today, we’re in the bowl mix. As of today our players are back. They were away for a few days, but they’re back now going through an acclimation period with COVID testing as well as lifting and conditioning,” he said. “We’re back in that mode not knowing exactly how it’ll play out.”

Other teams, most recently Virginia Tech and others, have opted to not play in bowl games but Tanner said he spoke to the team before they went home for a few days and right as Shane Beamer was named head coach and the players seemed receptive to playing.

“I talked to our players the early afternoon after we played our last game against Kentucky. At the time we weren’t sure what the scenario was going to be. I shared it with them at the time and I think a lot were surprised we were in the bowl hunt,” Tanner said. “We had a conversation and I was encouraging from the standpoint that it hasn’t been a great year but if you win your last game that’s a good place to be. That was a conversation I had with them.”

Right now the Gamecocks are projected to play anywhere from the Gasparilla Bowl (Dec. 26) to the Gator Bowl (Jan. 2) but a clearer picture of where things land could come this weekend after games are played.