College Football Playoff rankings: What South Carolina needs to crack 12-team field

South Carolina did everything it was supposed to do to put itself in contention for one of the 12, coveted spots in the College Football Playoff. While the conversation has been around which three-loss SEC team has the best losses and trying to justify why they deserve a spot. 

No three-loss team deserves a spot in the CFP if South Carolina doesn’t. Their wins are by far some of the best in the conference among the three-loss teams. And on top of that, their losses were to Alabama and Ole Miss. The only questionable loss to LSU and it was controversial at that. 

Shane Beamer put South Carolina within arms reach of the CFP when they stunned Texas A&M at Williams-Brice Stadium a few weeks back. A win over Clemson gets them as one of the first teams out at this point. 

But there’s a real path for them to get into the 12-team field. They’ll just need some help from the SEC and some higher-ranked teams ahead of them. 

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What South Carolina needs to crack 12-team College Football Playoff field

Let’s start in the SEC, the first thing the Gamecocks would need is Alabama to lose to Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Even if Alabama beats Auburn, they would need to blow out the Tigers, in my opinion, to improve their resume, after scoring just three points against Oklahoma a week ago.

Sure, Alabama beat South Carolina earlier in the year. But their loss to Oklahoma should have punished them more than it did. It didn’t and that’s probably why a 9-3 Alabama team gets a spot over South Carolina. 

Outside of the SEC, the Gamecocks have to hope for SMU to lose to Miami in the conference championship game next week. That would almost certainly bump them into the top 12 and knock SMU out of the CFP. If Miami wins, I could see the CFP committee dropping the Hurricanes somewhere between 10-12. 

It’s slim, but South Carolina can barge into the College Football Playoff party. Because they won’t get to play in the SEC title game, they don’t have a boost from there to get in. Texas and Georgia are pretty much locked in the playoff and Tennessee’s win probably keeps them in as well. 

It comes down to Alabama, the Big Ten championship game and the ACC championship game. They are the best three-loss team in my eyes. A few things go their way and they could be atop the SEC. Unfortunately, they no longer control their own fate.