Taking stock of South Carolina’s chances to make football playoffs in 2025
Shane Beamer and South Carolina football were among the teams highlighted during the first day of SEC Media Days in Atlanta on July 14.
Beamer was joined by quarterback LaNorris Sellers, defensive back DQ Smith and defensive lineman Nick Barrett at the Omni Hotel and College Football Hall of Fame for the preseason media event.
The Gamecocks head into the 2025 season with high expectations after going 9-4 last year in what was the best finish of Beamer’s tenure at South Carolina.
The State asked a few national media members for their opinions on the Gamecocks as the new season approaches. Here’s what they had to say:
Note: Answers have been edited lightly for brevity.
Come November, are we’re having a conversation about South Carolina being a playoff contender?
Richard Johnson, CBS Sports: “I think the beauty of this system is that November matters differently for teams than it ever has, right? November mattered for Carolina in a way that was really, really unique, because they made that run. The beauty of this system is that we don’t just forget about teams after they take two losses. Teams are allowed to be their best selves in November, and maybe they’re not undefeated, but they’re their best selves in November and so they actually have a credible chance to make the dance, or at least be in the conversation, the periphery conversation. At the end of the day, we got to Selection Sunday, and South Carolina had a credible shot. I didn’t have them in my field personally, but certainly could have made the argument they belong in and plenty of people did.”
Nicole Auerbach, NBC Sports: “I think it’s possible, for sure. I talked to Shane Beamer a couple weeks ago and we talked about how the best wins in his tenure there come in November. Which is good, but they need to start strong. The schedule sets up where they should be able to, as long as you navigate like the emotional Virginia Tech stuff in the opener. But, I think with the way that the early part and the back part of the schedule works out you’ll have a real chance. If you win the games you’re supposed to, don’t have any of those weird, fluky endings, like last year, they should be right there in the mix.
“I do think it’s really hard to jump up a level within the SEC, to go from middle to the upper middle, or whatever it needs to be to be in the CFP conversation. To me, it’s about the month of September, taking care of business, to position themselves to be in those games and play well against the good teams, like they have done over his time. Plus we’ll know a lot more about the defense early on as well and if they’re able to kind of plug in and stay in games that way, give Sellers a chance to win.”
Greg McElroy, ESPN: “The real question is on their defense. They got to replace so many key pieces. I think they’re gonna be good. They just got to replace that folks. So for me to anticipate them being in the playoff right now, I need to know a little more about their defense.”
Ben Portnoy, Sports Business Journal: “If you look at their last four games Ole Miss, A&M, Coastal and Clemson, realistically, they should probably be favored in maybe three out of those four. ... If they take care of business on the front end of this schedule, they have every ability to be in the playoff conversation. South Carolina, frankly, was in the playoff conversation last year, and I didn’t think they really should be considering the teams that they lost to where the teams ranked ahead of them. I don’t think it was really that particularly close that South Carolina should have been in the field. Yeah, they had some big wins, but that doesn’t discount the losses they had. So I think that if you’re South Carolina, if you can rack up some of those wins early and sort of avoid those close losses — like against Alabama, like against LSU — you win those games, you’re going to be in the playoff. I think it’s pretty simple, right? Win and you’re in kind of thing.
“South Carolina has done a really good job under Beamer, and I give him a lot of credit, and has really taken care of the games they needed to win. It’s pretty rare that South Carolina has just showed up and dropped a dud and really not been in a game that they should win. I think that when you’re trying to elevate, when you’re trying to take that step from seven or eight wins to nine or 10, you’ve got to beat a couple people that you’re not supposed to. Shane’s been good for an upset pretty much every year. So is that Clemson? Is it Alabama? Is it LSU? South Carolina probably needs to win one or two of those games in order to be in the playoff conversation. If this team ends up at 9-3, I think they end up in the conversation again.”
Alyssa Lang, ESPN: “When you think about the span of the season, I always go back and forth. Do you want to start the season with a bang and know what you’re getting? Or do you want a back-heavy season where you might get beat up down the stretch of the last five, six weeks? That’s always kind of the catch-22 playing in the SEC and not necessarily knowing what you’re going to get. So for South Carolina, I could see it happening like it did last year. Hopefully they’re able to grab one or two of those earlier games that prevent them from having that strike on the sheet against a College Football Playoff.
“Just the fact that they were in the conversation. Last year, I had a coach during the College Football Playoff selection show text me that day and say, ‘Man, the fact that we’re being talked about’ before we knew if we were going to see South Carolina in the final field, the fact that they’re being talked about and people are arguing they should get in is different. That and having that experience, in and of itself, gives me confidence that those little things like the LSU game from 2024, you let that slip away. Now, those guys who know what the result was of that have experienced that. So I could see it being even better this year.”
