Shane Beamer addresses why South Carolina canceled home-and-home vs. Miami

Shane Beamer weighed in on the recent news that South Carolina had canceled its home-and-home series against Miami. The Gamecocks and Hurricanes were originally scheduled to play each other in the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

Beamer addressed the cancellation during a press conference on Tuesday, saying it was primarily due to the SEC choosing to adopt a nine-game conference schedule beginning next season. Teams will also be required to play at least one game out of conference against a Power 4 opponent.

South Carolina plays in-state rival Clemson of the ACC every year, and wasn’t going to budge on that game. However, Beamer explained that he felt he would be putting his team at a disadvantage if they played another Power 4 program.

“It kind of is what it is with the SEC going to nine conference games,” he said. “I just went on that whole spiel a few minutes ago about not all conference games are built the same way. Nine conference games in other leagues are not nine conference games in this league. When we also play Clemson at the end of every season, as a competitor, yeah, you want to play against the best. If everybody in the country, everybody in the SEC was playing 12 Power 4 teams, great. Let’s have at it. But they’re not. It’s an unintended consequence of it.”

As it stands right now, Miami is 5-0 on the current season and ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll. South Carolina is 3-2 on the season and unranked.

Certainly Miami would have been a matchup that both fan bases would have enjoyed, but Beamer does have a point about it also making South Carolina’s schedule one of the most difficult in the country.

At least in the future, teams will be able to prepare ahead of time knowing that they must play nine conference game. It’s unclear at this point whether South Carolina would ever schedule anyone besides Clemson or if it feels it is locked in with the Tigers every year due to history.

“It just is what it is that every team in this league is gonna play nine conference games plus a 10th Power 4, but that doesn’t mean they have to play another Power 4,” Beamer said. “I think we probably would have been the only one. I know our fans were looking forward to it and I was looking forward to it, but you’ve also got to do what’s best for the team.

“To be completely frank, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to be playing 11 Power 4 games when everybody else in the SEC is only playing 10. Especially until we as coaches understand what are the metrics of the (College Football Playoff) committee gonna be. Last year, it was clearly on how many wins you had. Not who you lost to.”