ESPN COLLEGE GAMEDAY TO COLUMBIA

In somewhat unexpected news, South Carolina fans found out on Sunday that their upcoming battle with Missouri just got a little bit bigger:

College GameDay is heading to Columbia, SC! #GetUp4GameDay pic.twitter.com/0gGr5U6Cx5

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 21, 2014

With Gameday in town, expect the environment turned up in Columbia for a key SEC East match-up in an evening tilt against the Missouri Tigers.  South Carolina looks to move up to 3-1 in the SEC East and hold onto their lead in the division, as the Tigers hope to start conference play 1-0 after their disappointing home loss on Saturday to Indiana, 31-27.

The Tigers, along with Tennessee, are one of the only SEC teams not to have an SEC game under their belt thus far, as they'll finish the season with eight consecutive in-conference tilts.  A win in this game would give Carolina the tiebreaker over half of the SEC East (along with Georgia and Vanderbilt) and put them in excellent position to head into the softer portion of their schedule - Kentucky, bye, Furman - before they conclude the season with three tough SEC games along with Clemson.

As more details come in, we'll make sure to pass them onto you about how you can participate in the Gameday experience.  The last time Chris Fowler and company came to Columbia for an evening SEC East game in 2012, it turned out pretty well for the Gamecocks.  Overall, Carolina is 3-3 on Gameday visits to Columbia, having lost to Georgia in 2004, Florida in 2001 and Tennessee in 2006, but beating UCF in 2005 as well as Alabama in 2010 to go along with their 2012 win over Georgia.