South Carolina is the most watched football team in America. Forget the Dallas Cowboys or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish when they’re relevant. The Gamecocks have surpassed them all.

I don’t have the numbers to prove this, but ratings matter little if you’ve seen what I’ve seen. And I’m guessing you have, maybe without even realizing it.

Starving for college football over the past few months, I’ve really taken up watching anything dealing with the game I love. Whether it’s that goofy weekday college football show on ESPN to the ACC and SEC previews on other networks, it’s gotten me by.

However, the Gamecocks seem to show up on nearly every package of highlights (or lowlights for the USC fans out there).

Seriously, next time you watch SportsCenter and Kirk Herbstreit or Mark May has a quick spot talking about anything involving college football, count how many Gamecocks show up on your screen. Usually, it’s the defense on the losing end of a spectacular play.

Try hearing Florida’s 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow’s name on TV and it not be followed up by one of the five touchdowns he rushed for last year in Columbia.

Watch clips of defending national champion LSU and that trick field goal or a crushing sack by a Tiger lineman in Baton Rouge last year gets plenty of air time.

Clemson’s the talk of the ACC, so of course you can see Aaron Kelly’s catch followed by Mark Buchholz’s game-winning field goal that beat USC, 23-21, in Columbia. Cullen Harper has been named the best quarterback in the league and one of the nation’s best. As soon as he’s mentioned, there he is in that white jersey and purple pants, making a big throw against the Gamecocks.

Even the 2008 NFL Draft was very unkind to USC, and it had nothing to do with the lack of Gamecock selections. Every time Arkansas running backs Darren McFadden or Felix Jones were talked about, which was quite often considering they were first-round picks, there was USC’s defense getting ravaged for some of the 542 rushing yards. Even now, shots of new coach Bobby Petrino is followed up with a comment about McFadden moving on to the Raiders mixed with him blowing by a white Gamecock jersey during his 321-yard rushing performance.

Let’s face it, there’s good reason for all this. Year in and year out, USC plays some of the best players and teams in the nation.

But, come Thursday against N.C. State, the Gamecocks will likely turn those lowlights into highlights. They’ll be the best game on TV with the whole nation starving to see some real pigskin. And USC will be facing redshirt freshman Russell Wilson in his first collegiate start in a hostile SEC environment.

It couldn’t set up any better for America’s team to forget about that 5-game losing streak.