The default output format of to_csv() is:
to_csv()
12/14/2012 12:00:00 AM
I cannot figure out how to output only the date part with sp
Since version v0.13.0 (January 3, 2014) of Pandas you can use the date_format parameter of the to_csv method:
date_format
df.to_csv(filename, date_format='%Y%m%d')