The University of South Carolina football program has accepted a bid to play in the 2021 Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Thursday, December 30, against the North Carolina Tar Heels, it was announced Sunday, December 5, by the Charlotte Sports Foundation, owner and operator of the game. The game, scheduled for Bank of America Stadium (74,867) in Charlotte, N.C., will kick off at 11:30 am ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN.

North Carolina is designated as the away team and South Carolina is designated as the home team.

The Gamecocks are no stranger to playing in Bank of America Stadium, as this will be their sixth appearance in the Queen City since 2011. Carolina is 3-2 when playing in Charlotte, with four of the games being in a season opener and the other coming during the bowl season. They defeated East Carolina (2011), North Carolina (2015) and NC State (2017) in season lid-lifters, before falling to Virginia in the 2018 Belk Bowl and to the Tar Heels in the 2019 opener when they played in back-to-back games at BOA Stadium.

The Gamecocks enter the bowl game with a 6-6 record, including a 3-5 mark in the Southeastern Conference in head coach Shane Beamer’s first season at the helm, with wins over Florida and Auburn. The Tar Heels are also 6-6 overall and finished 3-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference under veteran head coach Mack Brown. Their best win was a 58-55 victory over Wake Forest.

South Carolina will be playing in its 24th bowl game. The Gamecocks own a 9-14 record in bowl games, with wins in five of their last seven and nine of their last 15 bowl outings after dropping their first eight bowl games. North Carolina owns a 15-20 record in 35 previous bowl appearances. They have lost four of their last five bowl outings.This will be the 59th all-time meeting between these bordering state’s flagship institutions. North Carolina leads the all-time series by a 35-19-4 margin, including a 3-1 mark when playing at a neutral site. However, the Gamecocks have won three of the last four and six of the last eight gridiron meetings between the two schools. Only Clemson (118 all-time meetings) and Georgia (74) have played more games against the Gamecocks than have the Tar Heels.

COURTESY SOUTH CAROLINA ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS