Shane Beamer preaches competition but calls for equality in SEC schedule debate
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Shane Beamer is live from Atlanta for the annual SEC Media Days, previewing the upcoming season for South Carolina football.
Along the way, Beamer was asked about the ongoing debate about the College Football Playoff and the SEC potentially moving to a 9-game league schedule after staying at 8 games for a prolonged period of time. The first part of the question involved expansion for the Playoff, something Beamer is all for at this juncture.
That’s far from a surprise after the Gamecocks were included in a tight group of 3-loss SEC teams a season ago that were left outside of the Playoff. Beamer certainly doesn’t want a repeat, and he would love to see more inclusion for the postseason.
“I’m all for expansion to get more teams opportunities. I want to make sure, we have the greatest regular season in any sport in college athletics… You want to make sure that the regular season doesn’t lose meaning, and I’m confident that it won’t if we expand,” claimed Shane Beamer. “It will still make a lot more games meaningful in the month of November in my mind, and it gives more teams opportunities to go compete for a championship, which is what anybody wants… I’m all for it.”
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As for the SEC schedule, Beamer maintains that competition is “a core component” for the Gamecocks. That means they are not scared to face the best of the best, which would involve moving to a 9-game slate with an additional SEC opponent every season.
However, Beamer did pause to reference the in-state rivalry with Clemson, something that only a few other SEC teams face on an annual basis. In that lens, Beamer believes his program already has a 9-game conference schedule, and he wants to make sure that doesn’t put the Gamecocks at a disadvantage with the rest of the SEC if a 9th league game is added.
“In regards to 8 vs. 9 conference games: Competition is a core component of our program. So I’m never going to shy away from competition. I just said we have a schedule that we get to play, but we also get to play Clemson every year and that’s a nonconference rival that we have that not every school in this league has,” Beamer addressed. “… In my mind, we’re already playing 9 conference games. If we go to 9 conference games, we’re now playing 10 and then you’ve also got future schedules with Miami on it, Virginia Tech this year, North Carolina, NC State.
“I’m all for competition, but I want to make sure that the other teams in this league aren’t playing 9 SEC games and 3 whatever you want to call them games that they should win.”
According to commissioner Greg Sankey, no decision has been made on the SEC schedule, but he vehemently denied that an 8-game SEC schedule somehow benefits his programs.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
