I hear you, Gamecock fans.

Preseason polls don’t mean anything, but how dare the voters not include South Carolina.

It’s a modern-day tragedy, really. It makes you madder than Stephen Garcia missing a wide-open receiver. Getting left out of the preseason polls to you is like anonymous sources to Will Muschamp. It makes you confused and angry.

But here, here. I promise it’s gonna be OK.

While I probably would have put South Carolina in my Top 25, there were a few reasons a 9-win team that returns nearly all of its offensive production from a year ago was left out of the Coaches Poll and Associated Press Top 25 to start the season.

I get that being “No. 26” compared to being ranked in the Top 25 to start the season matters for some people. After all, no team has ever made the Playoff after starting the season outside the Top 25. By that logic, South Carolina has already been eliminated from the Playoff (not really, though).

So if you reacted like ESPN’s Tom Luginbill, who said he had “no idea” how the Gamecocks weren’t ranked, I’ve got some, well, ideas why they’re on the outside looking in to start 2018.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been awhile

I promise that’s the last time I’ll reference some angsty early 2000s rock song. But whether it’s fair or not, we’re talking about a South Carolina team that hasn’t been ranked in the Associated Press poll since Sept. 2014. Yes, it’s been that long.

Last year’s 1-week stint in the Playoff poll doesn’t cancel that out. It’s a different set of voters. This is media voters we’re talking about. They aren’t the people who sit down and watch an entire Saturday of college football because they have their own game to cover. Big splashes are key (I’ll get to that later). Familiarity is key, too.

Here are all the teams who started off in this year’s AP Top 25 after being left out of the final poll in 2017:

  • Michigan
  • West Virginia
  • Florida State
  • Texas
  • Oregon

What do you notice there? They either have a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback (Michigan, West Virginia, Oregon) or they’re the traditional power that’s expected to make a big push with an up-and-coming coach (Florida State, Texas) … and they were all ranked at some point last year.

That’s a different kind of national hype than what South Carolina has. The Gamecocks’ hype is about a high percentage of production returning and a new, modern offense with a first-time offensive coordinator.

Would I have had South Carolina ahead of Texas or Florida State to start? Absolutely. I’d have the Gamecocks ahead of Oregon, too.

But I guarantee that played a part in why those teams got love and South Carolina, which won more games than all of those teams, didn’t.

About those 9 wins …

I’m not here to say that South Carolina only beat cupcakes last year because N.C. State, Michigan and Mizzou all won 7-plus regular season games. But N.C. State was the only team South Carolina beat that finished in the Top 25, and that win came in the season opener.

That, plus the belief that South Carolina played in one of the perceived weaker divisions in the country probably didn’t help. Maybe there’s still a notion that the Gamecocks aren’t Top-25 worthy because they really didn’t distance themselves from the bottom of the division last year:

  • Lost to Kentucky 23-13 at home
  • Beat Tennessee 15-9 on the road
  • Beat Vanderbilt 34-27 at home
  • Beat Florida 28-20 at home

I get the notion that South Carolina, even under Steve Spurrier, was never a team that won a ton of blowouts. I also get that moving the ball was difficult without Deebo Samuel. But when you’re having to pull out late defensive stands to beat bottom-feeder teams in the division on a weekly basis, it doesn’t exactly shout to the college football world “we’re among the nation’s best.”

OK, but enough about 2017.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Why that Georgia game could have contributed to this

This is what I think played the biggest part for those who are on the fence about South Carolina as a Top-25 team. That Week 2 showdown against Georgia — the game that everyone has been talking about all offseason — is going to determine whether the Gamecocks are a legitimate Top-25 team.

So why jump the gun?

That game will make voters’ decisions anyway. Is that fair? Not necessarily, but South Carolina does need to show the college football world that it can beat a legitimate top-10 team for it to earn some respect.

Ironically enough, the last time South Carolina beat a top-10 team was none other than No. 6 Georgia back in Sept. 2014. That 38-35 win at Williams-Brice bumped the Gamecocks from a fringe Top-25 team all the way up to No. 14.

Could that happen again this year? Based on some of the bold preseason predictions I’ve seen about that Georgia matchup, some are buying into that belief. Those people, however, probably would’ve also had South Carolina as a Top-25 team to start the season.

Not everyone is there yet. But perhaps by the time the clock hits zero against Georgia, Luginbill won’t have to do South Carolina’s Top-25 bidding.