Gamecocks will take on Connecticut

COLUMBIA -- You get the feeling that South Carolina would have been OK playing a bowl game anywhere.

Florida. Shreveport. Japan. The Moon. Wherever.

Just tell the Gamecocks where the field is, when they play and they would have been just fine.

"It didn't matter," USC coach Steve Spurrier said Sunday evening. "At the end of the year, you go where they tell you to go. There's no sense in worrying about we want to go here, we want to go there. It doesn't matter.

"We're looking forward to another game."

That game will be played Jan. 2 in Birmingham, Ala., where South Carolina (7-5) will meet Connecticut (7-5) in the fourth Papajohns.com Bowl.

"It didn't matter if they sent us to Birmingham or Nashville or Shreveport or Memphis or wherever. We'd go wherever they sent us," Spurrier said. "It should be a wonderful game there in Birmingham. We're looking forward to going there."

The game will pay $900,000 to each school, a figure likely made higher by ESPN's involvement (it's one of a handful of games owned and operated by the network's long arms).

Athletic director Eric Hyman said he wasn't yet sure how many tickets USC would receive.

Even though the Gamecocks

were one of six Southeastern Conference teams with matching 7-5 records, USC started to figure out by Tuesday that it was destined for the SEC's ninth and final bowl tie -- one that was just introduced to the league last season.

But don't presume that South Carolina is looking for pity because of that. No, the Gamecocks seem happy to be in Birmingham, playing in the shadows of the league's corporate offices.

Reiterating comments from earlier in the week, Hyman said the Papajohns.com made more sense -- at least for USC -- than the other lower-end SEC games.

The Music City, in Nashville, Tenn., is being played on Dec. 27 this year. Hyman said teams would arrive in Tennessee on Christmas, two days before the game.

The Liberty and Independence -- either at or west of the Mississippi River -- have both hosted Spurrier's Gamecocks in recent years. And both are much longer, more difficult drives than the five-hour ride to Birmingham that requires one road -- Interstate 20 -- from Columbia.

"I hope the fans can get to Birmingham," Spurrier said. "That's not a bad drive, I-20 straight through Atlanta and right on over. I hope our fans, if they like to go to bowl games, they'll want to go to this one just like all the rest of them. I don't think they were particular where we played."

Hyman again conceded that South Carolina really wanted to be in the Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

The proximity (three hours) was unbeatable, and the Gamecocks hadn't played in the game since 1969.

But the Outback Bowl went with Auburn, leaving Tennessee for the Chick-fil-A folks.

Hyman said the decision is understandable, considering the 7-5 Volunteers beat South Carolina on the field and finished with one more SEC victory than the Gamecocks.

South Carolina had clearly settled into the idea of Birmingham, Ala., by midweek, but the Gamecocks were still waiting for an opponent.

Initially, reports in Big East markets and Birmingham were saying it would be the winner of Saturday's Connecticut-South Florida game in New England.

By Friday and Saturday, though, there were rumblings that Pitt could fall from the precipice of the BCS to Birmingham.

The Panthers were 9-1 before a three-point loss on the road last week to West Virginia and a 45-44 loss in the last minute Saturday at then-No. 5 Cincinnati.

The only bowl that could've shaken up the process was the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, which had supposedly struck some sort of a deal with an 8-4 Rutgers team.

But when it was time to decide Sunday, the Charlotte bowl went with 9-3 Pitt and Rutgers wound up in the International Bowl in Canada.

That left UConn -- which defeated South Florida in the snow on a last-second 42-yard field goal -- as South Carolina's opponent.

"You don't know 'til you know," Hyman said of the opponent shuffling. "You hear so many things, rumors and innuendos."

The Huskies might have five losses, but they've come to five bowl-bound teams by a total of 15 points. Four points (twice) is their largest margin of defeat.

"You've got to admire what they've done there," Spurrier said. "They've only been playing (FBS) seven or eight years, something like that. They've come a long way. They've done a super job there. It should be a heck of a game."

The Gamecocks' December buzzword is momentum. South Carolina got it by defeating Clemson 34-17 two weekends ago.

It would like to keep it by winning the school's fifth bowl game, the second since Spurrier took over.

"We hope to get a bowl victory," Spurrier said. "We haven't had a whole bunch around here. That's something we're shooting for."

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com and check out the South Carolina blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/gamecocks.