Shane Beamer voices his many frustrations with selection committee leaving South Carolina out of CFP

Joy. Happiness. Appreciation. Gratitude. Exhaustion. Excitement. Shock. Disappointment.

That’s how the last few days of felt for Shane Beamer. It’s been a wave of many emotions for him and his South Carolina team to say the least. From the top of the world feeling after beating Clemson on Saturday to the gut punch he and the team experience on Tuesday night, a lot has happened.

The metaphorical gut punch came when the fourth-year head coach learned the Gamecocks weren’t inside the top 12 of the latest College Football Playoff rankings. After winning a game over a then-No. 12 Clemson in Death Valley, the playoff committee decided to move South Carolina up one spot to No. 14.

“Last night about 7 p.m. was absolute shock and disappointment,” Beamer said on Wednesday. “I won’t lie, that feeling really hasn’t changed since yesterday at 7 p.m.”

In the days following the big win in the Palmetto Bowl, Beamer had been making his case for South Carolina to be in the playoff. He confidently believed his team was one of the 12 best in all of college football. Yet, the committee didn’t see things the same way as he did.

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Instead, teams like Alabama, Miami and Ole Miss were all in front of the Gamecocks with the Crimson Tide being the only one from this group in the playoff picture. And the troubling part for Beamer and all teams on the outside looking in, they will have no chance to move up in the rankings, according to CFP committee chair Warde Manuel.

“Those who are not playing, we will not adjust those teams,” Manuel said on ESPN following the rankings reveal. “Because they don’t have another data point, obviously.”

Manuel basically explained that since none of the teams ranked 11-14 are playing in a conference championship game this weekend, the committee has nothing more to go off that could make them switch things up. In other words, South Carolina’s playoff dreams are over.

“Warde Manuel — if I hear the word data point one more time in my life, I might throw up,” Beamer said on Manuel’s statement about South Carolina and other teams not having any more data points. “But there’s a lot of data points that they apparently take into make their decisions. But I’m not sure strength of schedule is one of them. I don’t know how you can go play Clemson last week in the biggest game in the history of the Carolina-Clemson rivalry, win a game over a team that’s ranked higher than you and move up one spot. And another team can beat a team that’s not even going to a bowl game and move up two spots.”

The other team Beamer is referring to would be Alabama, who jumped from 13th to 11th after a 28-14 win in the Iron Bowl over a 5-7 Auburn team on Saturday. He was also confused by Manuel pointing out that the “the results of this weekend don’t matter.”

“I would say a Clemson team that has a potential to be an ACC champion, having a loss on their home field to a team like us, that’s a pretty big freaking strong data point if you ask me,” Beamer said.

And he would be right. If Clemson were to win the ACC Championship over SMU on Saturday, that would put the Tigers into the playoff with an automatic bid. And for South Carolina, that win in Death Valley would look a lot better considering it came against a conference champion and playoff team. But in the committee’s eyes, it makes no difference.

Among the list of things Beamer was frustrated with from Tuesday’s rankings, the committee’s criteria was something he admitted was frustrating because he doesn’t know what they look at. All week, Beamer preached how important strength of schedule and who you’ve beaten should be in deciding the bracket. However, the committee chose to go with head-to-head above all else to leave the Gamecocks out of the race since they lost to both Ole Miss and Alabama.

“I get it. They’re going to say, ‘Well, head-to-head. You can’t be ahead of Alabama and Ole Miss because you lost to them head-to-head,'” he said. “Well, they had Alabama ahead of Tennessee at one point when they both had the same number of losses and Tennessee beat Alabama. So, I don’t know if that holds up.”

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To wrap up his many frustrations, Beamer wasn’t pleased with the committee seemingly not taking injuries into account. Earlier this year, South Carolina didn’t have LaNorris Sellers for the second half against LSU, a game in which it lost 36-33 on Sept. 14. He brought this up because of a situation that kept a team out of the playoff last year.

“Last year, injuries were clearly a factor because they left Florida State out because of an injury. And this year, I guess injuries aren’t a factor, as well,” said Beamer, referring to when the Seminoles lost their starting quarterback Jordan Travis due to injury last year.

“There’s other things I can get into but don’t need to. It’s just a disappointing thing is there’s a lot of data points that are out there. If their job is truly to pick the 12 best teams, to sit there and say we’re not even in the top 12 but ranked 14th, I don’t know. There’s some really competent people in that room that I know personally but their decision on this one’s a head scratcher.”

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