The South Carolina Gamecocks and Missouri Tigers don’t have the long, storied history that many other rivalries have, but that doesn’t mean the teams haven’t become budding rivals in the last decade.
They’ll play Saturday for the Mayor’s Cup Trophy, and South Carolina will look to end its five-game losing streak to the Tigers. What is the Mayor’s Cup, and how have these two teams become unlikely rivals?
Missouri vs. South Carolina Rivalry History
Although these teams have only played each other 14 times, it has become one of the most anticipated matchups on the schedule every year. How did they become rivals?
Missouri and South Carolina played each other just once in the 20th Century, a 24-14 Tigers win in the 1979 Hall of Fame Classic. Between then and 2012, the teams met just once more, with Missouri winning in the 2005 Independence Bowl.
When Missouri joined the SEC in 2012, the Tigers were placed in the SEC East — against geographic logic — to balance the addition of the Texas A&M Aggies to the West.
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Accordingly, these teams played every year of the seven-team division era.
The rivalry started in two ways: Commonality and great football.
Both teams are based in Columbia, 900 miles apart. The more westerly Columbia, Missouri, is home to the Tigers, while the Gamecocks are, of course, in Columbia, South Carolina. There isn’t a lot of overlap in the names of college towns, so the rivalry started with silly fights over “the real Columbia,” in the same way teams bicker fiercely about “the real Death Valley.”
But then the teams started playing every season and with close games comes bitter rivalry. A top-10 Gamecocks squad blew the Tigers out in 2012, led by 20-straight completions from Connor Shaw, but the games got tight after that.
Shaw led one of the most improbable comebacks in the history of the SEC after entering late in the third quarter of a game he was expected to miss with an injury, throwing three touchdowns and winning in overtime.
A year later, Missouri came back from 13 points down with seven minutes remaining to stun a South Carolina crowd in front of College GameDay.
Since then, the teams have been streakier, with the Gamecocks winning three straight from 2016 to 2018, the latter of which occurred in a monsoon that engulfed the entirety of Williams-Brice Stadium while leaving the surrounding areas of the city completely dry. Missouri has won five straight, holding South Carolina to 14 or fewer points in four of those games.
The teams and fans have embraced the rivalry, and a trophy was even made in 2012.
What is the Mayor’s Cup?
The Mayor’s Cup is the physical trophy the winning team takes to its own campus until the next year’s meeting.
Designed in 2012, the Mayor’s Cup has only changed hands three times, as this rivalry has been marked by long winning streaks.
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Since the cup’s creation, the Gamecocks have won five games, while the Tigers have emerged victorious seven times.
The Tigers and Gamecocks renew their rivalry Saturday on SEC Network. Kickoff is set for 4:15, and the Gamecocks are 12-point favorites. The winner will have an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff.
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