Shane Beamer calls it 'a shame' for the SEC to only have three College Football Playoff teams

Ahead of last Sunday’s Selection Day reveal of the first-ever expanded College Football Playoff field, Shame Beamer was among college football’s most vocal head coaches decrying what he believes is a flawed system.

Hours after the first-ever 12-team Playoff field was officially announced, and ACC runner-up SMU bumped a three-loss Alabama out of the mix – meaning just three SEC teams (No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas and No. 7 Tennessee) made the field – the South Carolina head coach doubled down on his dismay.

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“I think everything’s on the table, certainly. You can say what you want, this is the best conference in America. And for us to only have three teams in the Playoff is a shame,” Beamer said Sunday during a press conference discussing the Gamecocks’ upcoming Citrus Bowl appearance. “I don’t think you can truly say you’ve got the 12 best teams in the Playoff year after year and only three SEC teams are in it. (Especially) when we’ve won however many of the last national championships. Best of luck to those teams that are playing in it. I hope Tennessee, Georgia and Texas, one of them goes and wins it all.”

Four SEC teams were projected to make the 12-team field in the penultimate rankings with the No. 11 Alabama representing the last team in as the highest ranked of a trio of three-loss SEC teams that also included No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 14 South Carolina. The Gamecocks (9-3) closed out the regular season with six straight wins, three coming against ranked opponents – including eventual ACC champion Clemson in Week 14. Despite that loss, the 16th-ranked Tigers (10-3) still secured one of the five automatic Playoff bids as a conference champion.

“But I think you’ve got to look at that, no question about it. Automatic bids? I think everything is on the table. And you go into the Playoff, and what, this year and next year are the same. Then you reevaluate going forward,” Beamer continued. “And certainly, the leaders across college athletics, the commissioners and ADs, whoever else, will figure out how to continue to make it better. This is the first one, and it’ll be great. I’m hurt we’re not in it, but I’m excited to watch.”

CFP executive director: Playoff format will be reevaluated

College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark previously confirmed to On3 that the CFP executive committee will “evaluate” every aspect of the 12-team format following January’s national championship game, including potentially expanding it to 14 teams and discussing the future of automatic bids. The CFP and ESPN agreed on a six-year, $7.8 billion deal in March that runs through the 2031-32 season. But the actual format remains up in the air beyond the 2025 season.

“Commissioners are going to look at it, right, they’re going to step back and we’re going to give them some options and other things that they can do, but in the end they’re going to look at whether 14 is a better number,” Clark said Tuesday at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. “That doesn’t mean that that’s the foregone conclusion, but after they see the results of this season and this Playoff, they’re going to say: ‘how can we make it even better?’ … But we have to see how this Playoff goes and then do a real analytical look at how we can get better.”

In the meantime, Beamer and the other SEC head coaches left out of the CFP field will instead turn their focus on their upcoming bowl games and watch how it all plays out from afar.

“It’ll be great for the fans to have home games at the four locations. That’s awesome. But like anything, there’s always ways to tweak it and make it better,” Beamer concluded. “For everyone, whether it’s the Big 12, the Big Ten, the ACC, the SEC, the Group of Five, whatever it is, just continue to find ways to make it better. But you’re sitting there watching the rankings come out (Sunday) and it’s a lot of thoughts going through your head when you see the teams that pop up there.”