First batch of College Football Playoff rankings released; South Carolina left out
The first official College Football Playoff rankings of the 2024 season were revealed on Tuesday. And to the surprise of some, South Carolina didn’t crack the CFP Top 25.
This news comes after the Gamecocks picked up a 44-20 win over Texas A&M on Saturday. And it just so happens the Aggies are ranked No. 14 after Tuesday night. South Carolina was also left out of Sunday’s AP Poll where it only received 58 votes this week.
The last time South Carolina was ranked by the CFP selection committee came back in 2022 during Week 15. The Gamecocks checked in at 20th spot in the final rankings. They’ve been ranked two other times since the CFP era began: In that same 2022 campaign, they were 19th in the country during Week 14. And before that, they were ranked 24th in Week 13 back in 2017.
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While the Gamecocks were left out of the rankings, it doesn’t mean all that much to Shane Beamer. In the hours before the rankings came out, the fourth-year head coach was asked about what it would mean to be ranked and if he planned to watch the reveal to which he clarified that he wouldn’t.
“Does it matter if we come out tonight and we’re ranked No. 1 or if we’re ranked 25th or if we’re not ranked at all? It doesn’t matter. I won’t really use it as motivation in any way,” Beamer said.
“All we need to worry about is we have a 1-0 mentality right now and that’s all we’re focused on right now is going 1-0. If you do the things during the week, the process, the grind on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that gives you the opportunity to go out on Saturday and hopefully go 1-0.”
Beamer made the point that if South Carolina continues to go “1-0” every week like he hopes it will, it could create a lot of opportunities down the road. Again, this is just the first CFP ranking of the year. Just because the team isn’t ranked right now doesn’t mean that can’t change in the weeks to come. There will be five more rankings to come leading up to the final selection show on Sunday, Dec. 8 at noon ET on ESPN.
“The only thing that matters right now is, for me personally, let’s put together a great game plan to go have a great Wednesday practice tomorrow morning,” Beamer said.
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Now in this new era of college football, 12 teams will make the CFP as opposed to the four-team playoff system that had been in place since 2014. The quick synopsis of how the new playoff format will work is that the four-highest conference champions will be the Top 4 seeds and earn an automatic bye in the first round. The fifth-highest-ranked conference champ (likely a Group of Five team) would also earn a playoff berth but not an auto bye.
The rest of the bracket will be filled out by at-large bids, which would be next seven highest-ranked teams that didn’t win their conference championship. If South Carolina were to be in the mix for the CFP by season’s end, this would be how it gets in. With two more SEC games to go, the Gamecocks are currently 3-3 have no chance to win the conference title, but they do have a 2.8 percent chance to make the playoff, according to the College Football Power Index.
But to get there, South Carolina will have to win out, which would put it at 9-3 to end the season. This would at least put it in the conversation, though making the playoff might be tougher as a 3-loss team.
As for the rest of the schedule, the Gamecocks will play two of their next four games against teams ranked inside the Top 25. They’ll travel to Nashville this weekend where they’ll play Vanderbilt (4:15 p.m. SECN). The Commodores were also left out after being ranked 24th in the AP Top 25. Then after home games against No. 24 Missouri and Wofford, South Carolina will close out the regular season on the road at No. No. 23 Clemson.
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Here’s a full look at how the entire CFP Top 25 rankings shaped out on Tuesday.
No. 1 Oregon
No. 2 Ohio State
No. 3 Miami
No. 4 Georgia
No. 5 Texas
No. 6 Penn State
No. 7 Tennessee
No. 8 Indiana
No. 9 BYU
No. 10 Notre Dame
No. 11 Alabama
No. 12 Boise State
No. 13 SMU
No. 14 Texas A&M
No. 15 LSU
No. 16 Ole Miss
No. 17 Iowa State
No. 18 Pittsburgh
No. 19 Kansas State
No. 20 Colorado
No. 21 Washington
No. 22 Louisville
No. 23 Clemson
No. 24 Missouri
No. 25 Army
The next batch of CFP rankings will come out next Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN in between games at the Champions Classic.
