Why CFP expansion is a good thing for South Carolina

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer tends to be forward-thinking.

He’s been a vocal proponent of name, image and likeness provisions, working to find ways — within the rules — to ensure his players have ample business opportunities. He, too, has long sounded the trumpet that college football would benefit from a preseason.

So where does he fall on College Football Playoff expansion from four to 12 teams? Let him explain, at least as far as he says he understands the recent changes.

“We had some people that, I think, they let their feelings maybe get in the way of going forward with the expansion plan that was last year,” Beamer said Sunday during his weekly teleconference with local reporters. “So it’s good to see that everybody came back around to what was, I think, somewhat agreed upon last year as well.”

It’s only been 48 hours since the College Football Playoff Board of Managers approved a 12-team format beginning no later than 2026. It’s a move that, in practice, opens the door to teams outside the mighty SEC and Big Ten to make the postseason.

What it means for South Carolina — a team that’s largely lived in the middle of the pecking order in the SEC East, sans a few breakout years under Steve Spurrier — is the Gamecocks could someday have an a chance at a playoff berth that wouldn’t necessitate a perfect record.

“Not only is this the first day of college football, which is always a happy time, but we’re able to add to that the joy of knowing that our board has made this decision today,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said on a conference call with reporters shortly after news broke Friday. “We’re delighted and looking forward to getting to work on it.”

That playoff berths are even a discussion at South Carolina is a bit of a stretch considering the program is just a smidge over .500 in its 128 seasons of football. It’s also won seven games or less every year but one since 2014.

Yet, the not-so-distant past makes conversations like these semi-relevant.

The College Football Playoff rankings — which determine the playoff field — have only existed since 2014. That makes The Associated Press Top 25 the best barometer for measuring past South Carolina teams and what could be in the new format.

The Gamecocks finished inside the AP Top 25 the week after the SEC title game — the set of rankings that most closely mimic when a CFP bracket is drawn — five times in the last 25 years. South Carolina would’ve finished inside a theoretical playoff field of 12 teams on three separate occasions in that span — 2011 (No. 10), 2012 (No. 11) and 2013 (No. 8).

Diving deeper, five of the six Power Five conference squads that finished 12th in the CFP rankings the week a playoff bracket was determined finished the regular season with nine wins. The lone exception was Pittsburgh in 2021, which capped its year 11-2 with a win over Wake Forest in the ACC title game.

South Carolina, for context, finished the regular season 9-3 or better every season between 2010 and 2014, part of a run that included three consecutive 11-win seasons under Steve Spurrier.

“I like it the way it is now, that’s certainly been very good for the SEC,” Beamer said. “Commissioner (Greg) Sankey said that we’re fine with four. We showed that last year. But I think anything that gives more teams the opportunity to compete for the championship is good.”

The fight for CFP expansion is years in the making. It’s included countless meetings between college football power brokers that amounted to little more than press releases indicating, “We’re working on it.”

That dam finally broke, as Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger reported on Friday, thanks to a push from Mississippi State President Mark Keenum — the chair of the CFP Board of Managers, the group responsible for approving such a change.

That vote, per SI, also included the ACC and Pac-12 reversing course on their previous vetoes to expansion in recent months.

“I believe for the SEC and for the other conferences that football needs to be strong nationally,” Sankey told reporters in Atlanta on Saturday, per The Athletic’s Chris Vannini. “That’s the opportunity that’s afforded here.”

The most recent round of expansion, in theory, allows for hope that South Carolina could compete for a CFP spot down the line.

For the next four years, though, it would almost certainly take an SEC title game appearance, at the least, to see the Gamecocks in one of those four playoff spots.

That has happened one time since the game’s inception in 1992.

Chances of a playoff appearance may be looming in 2026 and beyond. In the interim, South Carolina fans need not hold their breath.