After the 2026 season, there will be no more “cupcake” games for South Carolina or other SEC football teams prior to rivalry weekend.

The SEC is ending its late-season “cupcake” weekend.

Starting in 2027, SEC teams will be required to play a conference opponent during the second-to-last week of the regular season, ending the tradition of scheduling FCS and other non-power conference opponents immediately before rivalry week.

So instead of an easy non-conference tune-up right before Clemson week, South Carolina will now have to face conference opponents during the penultimate regular season weekend.

SEC athletic directors voted Tuesday to eliminate the late-November “cupcake” weekend.

“That’s the end of cupcake weekend in late November,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said at the league’s spring meetings, via ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “We never got that one sponsored.”

Per Dinich, the decision to end “cupcake” weekend “wasn’t driven by any desire to silence critics, rather it was a result of the league transitioning to nine league games this season and playing on more weekends.”

The mandate will officially take effect beginning in the 2027 college football season and the scheduling change does not impact the upcoming 2026 season.

This year, South Carolina has a tough SEC home game, against Georgia, the week before the Gamecocks travel to play Clemson on Nov. 28. However, over the last two years, for example, South Carolina has played Coastal Carolina (2025) and Wofford (2024) the week before the Clemson game.