Why South Carolina believes it should be in the College Football Playoff

No. 15 South Carolina wrapped up the regular season with a 17-14 win over No. 12 Clemson on Saturday to move to 9-3 on the year. The team, which completed a fourth quarter comeback to beat the Tigers, will now wait and see what happens next.

This next week should an interesting one for the Gamecocks, as they are right in the mix for a potential berth to the College Football Playoff. With their resume now complete, the team believes they’ve done enough to earn their place in the 12-team tournament.

“I do believe we deserve a spot in the 12-team playoff,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “I get it, the committee has a really tough job. They have to choose the 12 best teams. I get it, we have three losses. I understand that. It is hard for me to sit there and say that we are not one of the 12 best teams in the country.”

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The main argument against putting South Carolina in, like Beamer pointed out, are the three losses on the schedule. The Gamecocks lost to LSU and No. 13 Alabama by a combined five points. The one real blemish was a 24-point loss to No. 14 Ole Miss back on Oct. 5.

Since then, South Carolina has been one of the better teams in the country as winners of its last six games. During that stretch, it beat three teams ranked inside the current CFP Top 25: No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 21 Missouri, and No. 12 Clemson.

As for the teams it lost to, Alabama went 4-2 in the final six games with losses to No. 8 Tennessee and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Ole Miss also went 4-2 down the stretch with losses to LSU and Florida. All four of these games came on the road. But for the Gamecocks, they handedly beat three common opponents that the Crimson Tide or Rebels lost to: Kentucky, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.

“I think we’re the hottest team in the country right now. I mean, if you look at our resume, the three losses we have, I think Alabama, LSU are by five points in total, and Ole Miss probably wasn’t our best game,” Nick Emmanwori said. “… But I think we’re the hottest team in the country and we have a good case for the playoffs. I hope the committee does the right thing and put us in there.”

South Carolina’s metrics would show it should be in the conversation without question. It could even be considered one of the 12 teams in the country. The team has the 14th-best strength of record and 15th-best strength of schedule. They also rank No. 8 in game control. And they are 16th in the Football Power Index.

But are the numbers good enough? Beamer certainly thinks so.

“I think we are now 4-1 on the road this year in tough environments. We are not going to play in front of 20,000 people on the road like some teams do in this country,” he said. “We go into hostile environments every single week. Our only loss on the road is a two-point loss. You talk about strength of schedule. I think today is our fourth top 25 win with I believe the 12th highest strength of schedule.”

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Beamer’s other point was that South Carolina would be a challenging out for any other playoff team. If the playoff committee’s job is to put the 12 best teams in, the fourth-year head coach sees his squad as one of them.

“You tell me on selection Sunday, everybody across the country, if South Carolina pops up in that bracket, I don’t know if any team that would be excited about having to play this team with the way they are playing right now,” he said.

For now, all the Gamecocks can do is celebrate their big win over Clemson and await their postseason fate. The College Football Playoff bracket, rankings and bowl matchups will be revealed on Selection Day, which is next Sunday, Dec. 8 from 12-4 p.m. on ESPN.

“We want it. We want it more,” Rocket Sanders said. “That’s what it says about the SEC, and I feel like we’re one of the teams that want it more. We wanna compete, not just for us, but for the SEC, as well.”

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