Paul Finebaum claims South Carolina would've beaten LSU without ESPN College GameDay in Columbia

ESPN’s College GameDay is one of the better honors in college football when the show comes to your city to kick off coverage ahead of your big game. However, in the case of Columbia last weekend, Paul Finebaum thinks it would’ve been better for South Carolina had they not hosted it.

Finebaum gave that opinion during ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ after the 36-33 loss for the Gamecocks to No. 16 LSU. To him, they would have won the game had College GameDay not been there and inside Williams-Brice Stadium.

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“I think South Carolina would have beaten LSU without GameDay,” said Finebaum.

Part of that may be because the home team is now 0-3 this season when College GameDay is in town. Notre Dame beat Texas A&M in College Station to open the season before Texas won over Michigan in The Big House the weekend after. LSU then came back to defeat South Carolina in this one.

Still, to Finebaum, this was more about the Gamecocks spending too much time enjoying the spotlight. That was specifically so in the case of Shane Beamer who he felt was doing too much besides planning after appearing both on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and then College GameDay earlier in the morning before the conference game.

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“I am convinced that Beamer spent way too much time, you know, grabbing shots with McAfee and Saban and Herbie and not enough time working on the game plan,” Finebaum said. “The last couple minutes of that game, Beamer was atrocious.”

While College GameDay is exciting for a program and its fanbase, it can also be a distraction if there’s too much on the pregame rather than the actual matchup. That’s exactly what happened to South Carolina on Saturday according to Finebaum.

Herbstreit reacts to controversial calls, LSU comeback

LSU escaped Columbia with a win on Saturday, coming back from a 17-point deficit to beat South Carolina.

Kirk Herbstreit, who was on the call on Saturday, shared his reaction to the game, including the multiple penalties.

“What a game,” Herbstreit wrote on Twitter. “Game could have gone either direction. Some tough calls late in the game that I’m sure many will be talking about for some time. Congrats ⁦(LSU) and good luck to ⁦(South Carolina) rest of the year.”

Herbstreit shared a picture along with his post. Ben, his internet-beloved golden retriever, snuggled under a blanket on the couch back in Ohio since he didn’t make the trip for the weekend