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The point spreads for the top 200 college football games of 2014 were released by Golden Nugget on Friday. As far as I can tell, Golden Nugget hasn't laid out its criteria for determining the top 200 games, but in any case South Carolina is playing in seven of them.
The Gamecocks are favored in six of those seven point spreads listed, with the only anticipated loss being on Oct. 25 against Auburn in Jordan-Hare Stadium. While that's the only game on the schedule that South Carolina fans shouldn't expect to win, it's somewhat surprising to see the line open at a full touchdown in favor of the Tigers. (Thankfully, those are the only Tigers that Golden Nugget expects the Gamecocks to lose to.)
| Date | Away | Home | Spread |
| Aug. 28 | Texas A&M | South Carolina | -9 |
| Sept. 13 | Georgia | South Carolina | -3 |
| Sept. 27 | Missouri | South Carolina | -11 |
| Oct. 25 | South Carolina | Auburn | -7 |
| Nov. 1 | Tennessee | South Carolina | -18 |
| Nov. 15 | South Carolina | Florida | +6 |
| Nov. 29 | South Carolina | Clemson | +3 |
On the other side, I'm a bit surprised to see South Carolina open so heavily favored over Texas A&M. Obviously, the Aggies are tasked with replacing Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans, among others, and are hemorrhaging players from what was already one of the worst defenses in the conference. But Kevin Sumlin has turned A&M into a perennial recruiting powerhouse, so I expect the Ags to find their footing eventually. Perhaps getting them early in the season is playing a role here.
The biggest spread is South Carolina -18 at home against Tennessee. I'm going to take a lot of pleasure in watching that one get ugly.
Here are the other 193 spreads that Golden Nugget released:
Golden Nugget - 2014 college football games of the year by Marcus DiNitto