This article's title is a little misleading. South Carolina only played a then-current member of the Big XII one time in football, the 2005 Independence Bowl against now SEC foe Missouri but we felt this list was timely with the entries of Oklahoma and Texas into the SEC this week. Some quick history on the Big XII: It became a league in 1994 when the Big 8 and the four most TV-marketable schools from the old Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech) merged. Arkansas had left the Southwest Conference two years earlier for the SEC. When Arkansas and South Carolina joined the SEC, the new expanded conference killed the former College Football Association. The CFA, as it was known, existed to negotiate TV deals. The SEC followed Notre Dame's lead and broke away from the CFA to sell their own TV rights. This was all proceeded by the NCAA losing in court, (a common theme), and thus losing the ability to punish their member institutions for attempting to sell their own TV rights. The NCAA only lost that case, NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, by a 7-2 margin in the Supreme Court in 1984. It appears that the NCAA's understanding of antitrust law is somehow becoming more deficient over the years. (The NCAA's most recent Supreme Court appearance result in the extremely rare 9-0 decision against).

Nebraska and Colorado left the Big XII prior to the 2011 football season. Missouri and Texas A&M followed the next year. West Virginia and TCU were brought in to keep the league at 10 members. Texas and Oklahoma announced that they were jumping to the SEC back in 2021 and became official members this week. Once the two Big XII superpowers announced their departure, the Big XII raided non-Power Five leagues and brought in BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston into the fold. Once the PAC 12 crumbled, the Big XII accepted Colorado back in the league along with Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State, for a 16-team league. The 2024 football season will be the Big XII's first with 16 members.

The tumultuous league has seen 21 different members in its' history. Now back to Gamecock football. Of those 21 members, South Carolina has never played Texas Tech, TCU, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Kansas, or Oklahoma on the gridiron. The Gamecocks also never played Texas A&M until the Aggies joined the SEC. Carolina had played Missouri twice in bowl games, but had lost both meetings prior to the Tigers joining the SEC. South Carolina played Nebraska three times before finally beating the Huskers in the fourth meeting in the 2012 Capital One Bowl. Nebraska was a member of the Big Ten at the time and thus the win won't be included in this list. We also aren't going to consider any wins that came over Texas A&M or Missouri since they became members of the SEC (six wins total against TAMU and Mizzou- all SEC games).

We are only looking at wins against current Big XII members or wins against former members while they were apart of either the Big 8 or the Southwest Conference. The Gamecocks are 17-13-1 against current members of the Big XII. Carolina did defeat Texas while the Horns were a member of the Southwest Conference, the two schools only gridiron matchup at this time, so that win is included in the criteria for this list. For those you keeping count, that's 17 wins against current Big XII members and one win against Texas that were considered. All of the 17 aforementioned wins came against current members before the Big XII's creation in 1994.

You always remember your first. For the younger kids, bowl wins weren't always as commonplace as they are now. For starters, there were not nearly as many as today. Regardless, zero bowl wins in 103 years isn't good and was black eye on the Gamecock program. While the Carolina/Brad Scott breakup was a rough one, he'll always be remembered for delivering that first taste of postseason success.

Carolina legend Steve Taneyhill gave the Gamecocks an early lead when he connected with tight end Boomer Foster with 12:34 remaining in the first quarter. Reed Morton added on a 47-yard field goal, the longest in Carquest Bowl and Gamecock bowl history at the time. Tanneyhill, not known for fleetness of foot, ran in a four-yard touchdown to make it 17–7 at halftime. The Mountaineers struck back when Lovett Purnell caught a touchdown pass from Chad Johnston to bring WVU within three at 17–14 in the third quarter. Future NFL back Stanley Pritchet answered with a rushing touchdown to extend the Gamecock lead to 24–14. The 24 points was all the Gamecock defense would need. West Virginia would answer when Purnell caught another touchdown from Johnston to make it 24–21 at the end of the third. The Gamecock defense held the Mountaineers on a fourth down attempt with 3:52 remaining. deep in Gamecock territory. Carolina looked to ice the game, but Pritchett was stripped, fumbled and the Mountaineers recovered at their own 3 with 1:14 remaining. Again the defense held and preserved South Carolina's first ever bowl victory. Taneyhill went 26-of-36 for 227 yards and a touchdown. Carolina was outgained 375-390 in total yards but finished ahead where it mattered most.

Big George Rogers the workhorse was on full display when the Oklahoma State Cowboys, under first-year head coach Jimmy Johnson, came to Columbia. Big George would rumble for 165 yards and two touchdowns giving Jimmy Johnson the second loss of his young career. Outside of Rogers two TDs, kicker Eddie Leopard provided all of the other scoring with three field goals. Quarterback Garry Harper went 8-15 for 65 yards. The Cowboys led the game 13-10 at the half but Rogers would punctuate another touchdown drive in the third quarter to give the Gamecocks a lead they would not relinquish.

The 1979 Gamecocks, under Jim Carlen, would finish the regular season 8-3 before losing to Missouri to in the Hall of Fame Classic in Legion Field. (Only the second worst experience for Gamecock fans in Legion Field bowls). The 79' Cocks defeated Clemson, Georgia, and Ole Miss. The three regular season losses came to North Carolina, (that year's Gator Bowl winner), #7 Florida State in Tallahassee, and #14 Notre Dame in South Bend by a single point.

The Pokes had a strong season finishing 7-4 with their other losses coming to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, all of which were top 15 opponents. Johnson would go 29-25-3 in five seasons in Stillwater before accepting the Miami job. From there he would win a national championship and two Super Bowls as the Dallas Cowboys head coach. One has to think that losing his forth game as a head coach in Columbia still keeps him up at night despite the national championship, two Super Bowls, and Hall of Fame induction.

The Gamecocks had left the Southern Conference for the newly formed ACC in 1953. The Mountaineers entered this game with a 13-game winning streak and a #8 national ranking. The Gamecocks were 5-2 having lost to only top 10 opponents Duke and Maryland. South Carolina quarterback Johnny Gramling led the Gamecocks with two rushing touchdowns and one passing. Gramling would finish 2-7 with 23 yards with the one aforementioned touchdown and one interception.

The Gamecocks took an early 13-0 on the two Gramling scores and then held onto the 13-point lead 20-7 early in the 3rd quarter. West Virginia would answer cutting the lead to 20-14 on a Joe Marconi one-yard score. The Gamecocks' defense held West Virginia scoreless in the 4th quarter to preserve the upset in front of 32,000 in Morgantown.

Gramling, the Orangeburg native, would play one season in the CFL before joining the US Air Force. From there he continued to win, marrying Miss USA and Miss World runner-up Betty Lane Cherry Gramling. Gramling's 1953 Gamecocks finished 7-3 and beat Clemson later in the season. Gramling was named to the 1953 All-ACC Team. The 1953 season was also the first season that the Gamecocks appeared in the AP Poll spending two weeks ranked. West Virginia would end the season ranked 10th and lose only once more, to Georgia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

South Carolina is one of only seven FBS teams that Texas has played but failed to beat. Hopefully, this statement will hold true for the next 20 years or so. Texas was ranked #20 and in their first season under legendary head coach Darrell Royal. The Gamecocks took the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. The player responsible was future US Marine and Gamecock Athletic Director King Dixon.

Texas would go on to score the next 21 points and would take a 21-7 lead into the 4th quarter before running back Alex Hawkins would take over the game. Hawkins would score three touchdowns, two rushing and one passing on a halfback pass, and kick two of the extra points as the Gamecocks defeated Texas in their first and only meeting. Carolina overcame being out-gained by the Horns by over 100 yards and completing only three passes. The only thing more shocking than the outcome was that the video of this game exists on Youtube.

The Longhorns would go on to play in the Sugar Bowl after defeating four ranked opponents. Carolina would finish the season at 5-5.

Here are the 12 wins that's didn't make the cut:

1980 and 1982- Carolina defeated Cincinnati 49-7 and 37-10 in the only two meetings between the two schools.

South Carolina is 5-0 all-time against the UCF Golden Knights. 2013's win was the last in the career of Steve Spurrier, but both teams were awful. Spurrier also earned his ever win as the HBC of the Gamecocks in 2005 over Knights. The Gamecocks defeated the Knights in 1996-1997 while UCF had Dante Culpepper under center. Those were Central Florida's first two seasons at the FBS level and their roster wasn't ready to beat an SEC team, even though they came close in 97' losing 33-31 to the Gamecocks.

Despite the two games above, West Virginia leads the series against the Gamecocks 7-4-1. You read about two of those Carolina wins already, the other two came in 1990 and 1951. The 1990 game was played after the Clemson game on Thanksgiving. Carolina won 29-10 ending the season with a winning record (6-5) and better taste in its' mouth after losing to the rival Tigers five days earlier.

The Gamecocks beat Houston in the 2006 Liberty Bowl in one of the more exciting games of the early Spurrier Era. The Cougars won the other two meetings in the early 70s. South Carolina hammered the Iowa State Cyclones in 1967 by a score of 34-3 in the schools only meeting. USC holds a 2-1 edge against Kansas State. The schools split a home-and-home in 1940-1941 and the Gamecocks' 1984 Black Magic team smoked a bad Wildcat club on a hot afternoon in Columbia by a score of 49-17.

If there were a #6 on this list, Carolina's 1975 home upset of Baylor would have made the list. The Bears entered Williams-Brice at #18 in the country and left with a 24-13 loss. The other reason it didn't make the top 5 was because Baylor would lose five of their last seven games and finish with a 3-6-2 record. Baylor won the other two meetings in 1949 and 1976.

Gamecock fans didn't know the importance of this game at the time. They wondered why Carolina would agree to play a game in the middle of the season in Orlando and for good reasons, "We're very fortunate, very thankful," said Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier after the Gamecock narrowly escaped "The Bounce House" before 47,605 fans, the third largest crowd in FBC Mortgage Stadium history.

Carolina lost starting quarterback Connor Shaw in the first quarter and Dylan Thompson had an uncharacteristically poor day. He finished 15-32 with no touchdowns and one pick, one of four Carolina turnovers on the day. Luckily, the ground game traveled. Mike Davis rumbled for 167 yards and 3 touchdowns, with most of the damage coming in the 2nd half. Spurrier threw the game plan out in the second half and lined up in power formations content with playing Lou Holtz style football. Carolina's defense would intercept UCF three times, (Jimmy Legree, T.J. Holloman, and Victor Hampton), and the Gamecocks would escape Orlando with a 28-25 win.

It was a game of momentum swings. UCF led 10-0 at halftime. Carolina dominated the third quarter and the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, jumping out to a 28-10 lead. The Knights cut the Gamecock lead to three with 1:54 remaining but Bruce Ellington would recover the ensuing on-side kick and return it to the UCF 15. Three bends of the knee later and the #12 Gamecocks survived the upset bid.

The Knights would defeat #6 Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl and finish the season ranked 10th. Carolina defeated Wisconsin in Capitol One Bowl and finished #4 in the land. Had the Knights prevailed over Carolina, they certainly would have claimed a national championship.