Women's Fastbreak On SI

South Carolina and USC Set Stage for 'Real SC' NCAA Women's Basketball Showdowns

Two of the best women's basketball teams will be facing off twice over the next two seasons for unique bragging rights.
Grant Young|
March 9, 2025; Greenville, SC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley cuts the net down after the win over Texas in the SEC women’s championship at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
March 9, 2025; Greenville, SC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley cuts the net down after the win over Texas in the SEC women’s championship at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Over the past two seasons, the South Carolina Gamecocks and USC Trojans have established themselves as perennial NCAA National Championship contenders (although South Carolina did so a long time ago).

While there's enough room for these two cross-country teams at the top of the NCAA rankings, there is one problem with them both being great: their universities share the same acronym.

University of Southern California and University of South Carolina are, of course, both boiled down to USC in acronym-speak. While there's likely no problem identifying which "USC" team someone is referring to when they're speaking on the West Coast or down South, the waters get murkier when this acronym is used elsewhere.

And it seems that both women's basketball programs are determined to settle this 'SC' name dispute once (actually twice) and for all, as it was announced on March 10 that the Gamecocks and the Trojans will be playing each other one time over the next two NCAA seasons, both on November 15.

The South Carolina women's basketball X account announced this with a graphic that wrote, "The Real SC", and was captioned, "Guess we'll settle it on the court".

It also noted that the 2025-iteration of this two-game series will take place in Los Angeles' Crypto Arena, which is where the Los Angeles Lakers play. The second leg of the series, which will take place in 2026, will be in Bon Secours Wellness Arena, which is where the SEC Conference Tournament was just played.

Maybe these teams will play in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, which would guarantee that this series for the 'SC' acronym produces a clear winner.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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