Shane Beamer explains why South Carolina isn't televising spring game this year
In a little over two weeks, there will be football back at Williams-Brice Stadium. South Carolina will play its annual Garnet & Black Spring Game on Friday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. There’s one small catch, though.
Unlike years past, the game will not be televised. That’s right. No broadcast, live video, stream, or anything of that nature. It will, however, be carried live on 107.5 The Game, with airtime one hour before kickoff. The only way to watch the game will be in-person.
Head coach Shane Beamer understood the displeasure that many had with this decision. He even apologized to the people who enjoy watching the game on television. However, South Carolina isn’t the only school to not put its game on TV. Many programs have either decided not to have a spring game, or if they do, not have it be televised.
In the SEC, only Texas A&M will have its spring games aired on SEC Network Plus. ESPN gave every team in the conference the option to either have their game live on the SEC Network or SEC Network Plus or provide a 30-minute original spring football show to replace it that would air on ESPN platforms.
South Carolina went with the latter. Beamer believes it will be more impactful from a recruiting standpoint to do a behind-the-scenes show, which would air at a later date.
“If all of you guys are recruits for us, we can let you know when this show is coming on, and you can watch this and learn a lot about our football program,” Beamer said. “It would probably be more impactful from a recruiting standpoint than watching a two-hour spring game on television.”
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Beamer brought up a valid question: Why would South Carolina choose to broadcast their game when other teams aren’t? He said it wouldn’t be smart to do so when opponents could easily watch the game to do some early scouting.
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“From a competitive standpoint, if there’s a spring game on television, we tape it and we watch it, and that’s how we can watch personnel,” Beamer said. “We could watch their spring game and just kind of get an idea about personnel and who’s lined up where, and things like that as well.”
While there won’t be any way to watch besides going in-person, Beamer intends on making it as game-like as possible, noting it won’t just be another practice. This is different from some other SEC schools that are straying away from the traditional spring game and replacing it with something else.
“As long as we have healthy bodies, I want to have two teams and play as much like a game as we possibly can,” Beamer said. “Now, are you going to see LaNorris Sellers in the fourth quarter? Probably not. But would he be in the spring game and playing some? Yeah.
“It just goes back to, we don’t get any kind of opportunity against another team. So we want to treat it as much like a game as we possibly can, because the next time that we’re playing in front of a big crowd is going to be in Atlanta against Virginia Tech. We want to make it as much game-like as we possibly can.”
Admission to South Carolina’s Garnet & Black Spring Game will be free for all fans. Gates that will be open for the game will open at 6 p.m. There will also be a fireworks show at the conclusion of the game.
