Shane Beamer wants to play in the College Football Playoff, but he's not pushing the issue -- yet.
As playoff dreams floated in players' minds, the South Carolina coach stepped in front of his team for the first time this week on Tuesday morning, just hours before the Gamecocks were ranked No. 15 in the newest set of CFP rankings.
"The word playoff never came out of my mouth," Beamer told CBS Sports. "It's all about 1-0 and finding a way to beat Clemson."
There's hope, albeit small, that South Carolina (9-3) could reach the field as the SEC's fourth team. The Gamecocks have won five straight games, including two against ranked SEC teams, and a win this week at No. 12 Clemson could -- could -- be enough to convince the committee to slide the Gamecocks into the 12-team field.
Crazy? No. Welcome to the new world of the 12-team playoff, where three-loss teams in the Big Ten and SEC can play for a national championship. Over the last 10 years, 22 teams with three losses have been ranked in the top 12 of the committee's final rankings. The Gamecocks need help, and maybe a little bit of chaos in the final week of the regular season, but the opportunity is still alive.
"We need to go play really well," Beamer said. "That's our only focus. But if we were able to win that game, I think there's a lot of bullet points that would be very strong in our favor, in regards to why we're one of the 12 best teams."
Should South Carolina beat Clemson, Beamer said he's prepared to vouch publicly for the Gamecocks. South Carolina is a 2.5-point underdog at Clemson, which it lost to a season ago, 16-7. Two years ago, the Gamecocks won in Death Valley, eliminating their rival from the CFP race.
South Carolina's case hinges on its recent performances that include a 44-20 blowout of SEC title chaser Texas A&M (8-3) and a strength of schedule that ranks 12th in the country, according to ESPN's FPI. The Gamecocks rank eighth in the "game control" metric, a tool often cited by the selection committee when ranking teams.
It all sounds great for South Carolina, right? The problem? South Carolina is ranked behind SEC mates Alabama (8-3) and Ole Miss (8-3), which both own head-to-head wins against the Gamecocks. Alabama escaped with a 27-25 win in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 12, one week after Ole Miss drilled South Carolina 27-3 in Columbia.
Also hurting South Carolina is a 36-33 loss to LSU in Week 3, when the Gamecocks blew a 24-10 lead after quarterback LaNorris Sellers was injured and missed the second half. The committee, which considers how injuries affect teams, could be pushed to discuss how differently the Gamecocks performed without Sellers. The Gamecocks, Beamer said, have also adjusted through the season with true freshmen at left tackle, receiver, tight end and defensive end.
"We did some good things early but you finally see those guys kind of coming together and clicking, there's no question about it," he said.
Alabama and Ole Miss lost last week against unranked teams on the road, placing doubt that either deserve to be the fourth SEC team in the field -- again, that's a big "if," which seems unlikely heading into the final week of the regular season. Committee chairman Warde Manuel said Tuesday Alabama ranks ahead of Ole Miss and South Carolina because a home win against Georgia bolsters their resume. Still, the losses last week opened the door for the Gamecocks, who play ranked Clemson on the road this week while Ole Miss and Alabama host sub-.500 rivals.
How a win against Clemson could help South Carolina remains to be seen.
"I'll continue to say we don't look forward and we don't project, but winning always helps," Manuel said. "When teams win, we value what they do. I don't know what that would mean towards where [South Carolina] will be in projecting, but there is value in winning games."
If it comes down to the strength of the SEC, which has been questioned in the media, Beamer has issues.
"Watch the NFL Draft come April, like every single year," he said of the SEC, which has led the country with the most overall draft picks for the last 17 years. "Every single Saturday in this league is a grind. Every single Saturday in this league there's multiple -- not one -- first round draft picks on basically every team you play, or at least the ones that we played this season."
Heading into the final week of the regular season, the Big Ten is slated to place four teams in the playoff, followed by the SEC with three and the ACC with two. The Big 12's champion will likely be placed in the field, too, despite the conference dealing with a nine-team fight for placement in the conference's title game. Boise State, as the highest-ranked Group of Five champion, would garner placement (they're on pace to receive a first-round bye) and No. 5 Notre Dame appears set in the field, too, with a road trip to USC remaining.
"I know this: whoever is in the playoff, I can't imagine they're hoping that they draw an SEC team," Beamer said.
