Shane Beamer talks final rivalry week before college football changes forever: 'I will miss it a lot'
Enjoy college football while you can. Before you know it, the game will start to look a lot different.
Starting next year, there’s going to be some major changes to the sport. The biggest of which will be some teams joining new conferences. For instance, Southern Cal and UCLA are moving to the Big 10. Texas and Oklahoma are coming to the SEC. There will even be a 12-team playoff. The list just goes on and on.
South Carolina won’t be overly impacted by many of these changes. The Gamecocks will still compete in the SEC for years to come and retain its rivalry with Clemson. But head coach Shane Beamer would be lying if he said he wouldn’t miss the game the way it was.
“Honestly, yeah. I will miss it a lot,” Beamer said.
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Beamer considers himself to be a traditionalist. He likes things the way they are right now. But he understands change is inevitable.
“I’m sure there’s old-school SEC people that don’t like that South Carolina’s in the SEC, or old-school guys that don’t like that Virginia Tech and Boston College are in the ACC whenever that happened 10, 20, 30 years ago. But certainly, I’m a traditionalist,” Beamer said.
With the movement around college football, there will be some losses that come with it like rivalries. Not all of them are going away. But games like Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Oregon-Oregon State, Washington-Washington State will no longer be played. At least not right now.
For Beamer, he hates to see some of these big games go away. In some cases, it’s rivalries that he’s been a part of in the past. But he has learned to move on.
“You also realize that times are changing,” he said. “However weird it might be that teams in California are now part of the Big 10 and teams in California are now part of the ACC, it’s different. But you also realize you better adapt and know that times are changing.”
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The good news for South Carolina is that its rivalry with Clemson isn’t going anywhere. On Tuesday, Clemson AD Graham Neff made it clear this game is here to stay.
“Yeah, it’s just a non-negotiable,” Neff said. “Ray (Tanner) and I have talked about it. We have and will continue to play that game. Period. However the landscape continues to change, no conversations otherwise, no mindset otherwise.”
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So even in light of all the impending change, there’s always going to be a silver lining.
“That’s why I’m glad that this game will continue and things like that as well because there are a lot of changes in college athletics,” Beamer said. “People above me that are a lot smarter than me are making those decisions.”
As the realignment and other changes start to take place, Beamer has one hope for the sport moving forward.
“What we can’t ever get away from is what makes this sport special, and that’s the traditions and the environments and stadiums on Saturday afternoons,” he said. “We’re in the SEC, we’re not going anywhere. But no matter what conference you’re in, you know when you’re across the street in Williams-Brice Stadium, it’s going to be a rocking environment and special every single Saturday. That’s one thing I know will never change, no matter how much stuff changes around us.”
