South Carolina Football Fans Shouldn’t Be Upset About Losing Annual Rivalry With Georgia…

I know that there's a lot of South Carolina fans that are very upset that the Gamecocks are no longer going to be playing Georgia on an annual basis but I don't think you should feel that way you are locked on Gamecocks your daily podcast on the South Carolina Gamecocks part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day alone game nation and welcome back to the locked on Gamecocks podcast your show for the latest headlines and potential story lines on South Carolina Gamecock Athletics I'm Andrew line the host of this podcast and also a staff ride for Gamecocks digest over on si.com thank you all so much for making the locked on Gamecocks podcast your first listen or watch here today we are free and available both on YouTube and also wherever you get your audio podcasts daily before we get to this Thursday edition of locked on Gamecocks I want to let y'all know that today's episode is brought to you by bird dogs go to birddogs.com lockdown college and when you are to the promo code locked on College they'll throw in a free custom bird dogs Yeti Tumblr with every order that you make Wednesday was a groundbreaking day for both South Carolina and the rest of the SEC as the SEC had announced the 2024 conference slate for every single team in the SEC and for South Carolina there was one glaring Omission that a lot of fans spotted on their schedule and that was the Georgia Bulldogs and based on some reporting it seems like the Bulldogs are not going to be a permanent opponent for South Carolina even in potentially a 366 model that could be implemented down the road and here's my thing about the entire Georgia discussion considering what South Carolina will be dealing with already and what shampemer's end goal is Gamecock fans should not be upset that the Georgia rivalry will no longer happen on an annual basis I know that some people after hearing me say that are probably saying one of the following how dare you tell me how I should feel you are softer than Charmin toilet paper for saying that and don't you understand that you have to knock off the best to be the best and I get all of that but I want all of you for those of you who are really on the side of keeping the Georgia game or really believe that it should be on the schedule no matter what give me a chance to convince you why this isn't a bad thing at the end of the day my first point here we all have to remember what the end goal is now in modern college football and also what Shane Beamer wants to accomplish in Colombia and that is winning championships it is whether we like it or not the measuring stick now for every single program in college football if you're not even winning nine games or more every single year quite frankly the media and a lot of casual fans out there they view you as mediocre to the point where it might not matter really what you do in those eight or nine wins and so Georgia not being on the schedule obviously would make the path towards winning a national championship and gaining that National notoriety a lot easier now I know that some people will respond to that by saying but Andrew if South Carolina had a real chance to win a championship in a hypothetical scenario whether it be the SEC title or maybe a national title that would be more than likely right now that they would have to play Georgia at some point anyways that would be true but here would be my retort would you rather play Georgia early in the year every single year no matter what or you play Georgia later in the season perhaps and possibly a game or two away from a conference or national title where there would be a lot more riding on the line in that scenario I think I'd know what the majority of y'all's answers would be here's another thing that I think that we all need to keep in mind here regarding the Georgia game going away or at least being moved to a bi-annual basis nobody is going to hold not playing the Bulldogs every single year against South Carolina when they have great Seasons or say win a championship I want to bring up a few examples to really Hammer home this point with y'all real quick think about the Clemson Tigers don't grab your barf buckets okay just hear me out for a second think about how Clemson won each of their national championships in 2016 the Clemson Tigers faced three top 25 opponents before they played in the college football playoff and eventually won a national title that year in 2018 the Tigers faced two top 25 teams before they played in the college football playoff and once again eventually won the national championship outside of a South Carolina Gamecock fans who like to poke at how soft the ACC is and definitely was back then when Clemson was going on their run do people nationally go back and bring up the fact that Clemson pulverized as soft as you know what schedule and that was why they won those national titles no they give them credit simply because they won those national championships they had to play 15 games to get to that end result nobody's looking back at the fact that they had to play the Boston colleges of the world the Wake forests of the world whatever bad team in the ACC you want to bring up they don't think about those facets of those seasons think about Auburn the Auburn Tigers have played Georgia and Alabama on an annual basis I believe dating all the way back to 1933 when they joined the Southeastern Conference how many national titles have the Auburn Tigers won in that 89-year stretch by quote unquote maybe not being soft because they've had those two games on the schedule they've won two national titles two that's it nothing more to show for it now Auburn is still very very respectable but imagine what Auburn might have done in that 89-year stretch and for some of these years they didn't have to deal with Alabama and Georgia both on their schedule and now let's look at a team like Kentucky a team that obviously used to be one of the bigger punching bags in the SEC and now is a lot less of a punching bag but Kentucky they've had a pretty good run recently they secured two of their three 10-1 seasons in the past five years when people look back at those seasons do they say man Kentucky schedule was softer than a cow patty or do they get the Wildcats credit for winning 10 games outright I think you all know the answer there Kentucky gets the credit for winning 10 games especially obviously compared to what they've done historically people don't bring up the fact that they probably faced Youngstown State two Mac teams and the Louisville Cardinals of all teams in their non-conference slate and that clearly boosted them enough and helped them get to 10 wins people don't bring that up at least the majority of people don't bring that up and that's my overall point here nobody's going to hand South Carolina a try hard kind of trophy or award because they have Clemson and Georgia and all these other likely difficult SEC teams on their schedule in an eight or nine conference game type scenario where we now are in this new SEC you're facing a lot more difficult opponents if you're South Carolina who is no longer just playing teams that used to be in the SEC East or at least will be all the way through the end of this season we no longer live in a college football world where everyone as Fanatics and media personalities and analysts alike prioritize the regional rivalries over everything else the regional rivalries still matter to a certain extent for certain teams unfortunately they do but for the most part if you're a South Carolina now that doesn't matter to people anymore at least outside the fan base it does not matter to people what people care about now from this point forward and what they've cared about for years quite frankly with teams like South Carolina is what is your overall win-loss record and how many championships have you won I'm not saying that that is right okay I'm not trying to side with those people however my overall point here is if that's the way that this sport is going to turn if it's going to be more like the NFL where people look at trophy cases as sort of the measuring stick for every single program across the board then for South Carolina I don't think you should be upset if you have a easier road so to speak by not having Georgia on the schedule annually I think that at the minimum you should be able to compartmentalize that look in the short term you're not gonna be happy about this but long term I do think that you will see some of the adverse benefits that this will bring to shank Beamer and South Carolina's football program now Georgia might have not been included in the 2024 schedule for South Carolina when it comes to their SEC slate but the Gamecocks will face one of the two New Kids on the proverbial SEC block two seasons from now we're going to dive into which one of those teams that is and all the headlines that will surround that game in just a couple moments right here unlocked on Gamecocks but first Today's Show is brought to you by our friends over at bird dogs all right look we're getting into the summer months here now and because of that a lot of people they're going on vacation they're going to the beach they're going to all these nice restaurants maybe on the beach they're going out to the lake maybe you're just getting into your swimming pool in your own family backyard and doing all these different type of summer events and activities you want to have really comfortable shorts to go along with those memories and the best shorts out there right now are bird dogs bird dogs are stretchy khaki shorts they help to give you a really good look they fit well they're comfortable and they're versatile and they also have anti-stink sweat wicking fabric that helps to keep you cool and dry all day long throughout the dog days of summer so go to birddocs.com lockdown college and enter promo code locked on college for a free Yeti style tumbler with your order that's birddocs.com com lockdown college for a free Yeti style tumbler I promise you once you put on bird dogs for the first time you're never going to want to take them off ever again [Music] [Applause] welcome back to today's edition of the locked on Gamecocks podcast where we cover your South Carolina game packs every single day thank you to all of you every day which make the lights on Gamecocks podcast your daily choice for South Carolina Gamecock Sports coverage you every dares may remember that I did some interviews with some of my counterparts here from the locked on podcast never just a couple weeks ago and we're going to continue that throughout the final week in the month of June so if you're interested in more coverage on some of South Carolina's 2023 opponents I promise you you're not going to want to miss any of the shows that we do at the end of this month but before we get to all of that of course let's continue talking about staff class 2024 schedule and some of the opponents that they have including the Oklahoma Sooners it will be the first matchup that South Carolina has against either the Sooners or the Longhorns once they join the SEC in 2024 and that game is going to be taking place in Norman it will be the biggest storyline matchup for South Carolina in 2024. there's multiple obvious reasons why that's going to be the case the first one that will come to mind is the fact that this is going to be a homecoming of sorts for shame Beamer and his family who will be returning to Norman for the first time since Champion became the head coach here at South Carolina Coach Premier has talked about his time in Norman multiple times before in the past and he's made no bones about how much he enjoyed the time that he spent over there in Oklahoma between 2018 and 2020 the three years that coach Beamer was there in Norman the Sooners went 33-6 won three big 12 championships and also made two college football playoff appearances so on the field the team had a ton of success while coach Beamer was there under Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma fans to have seemingly reciprocated the love for Shane Beamer as they have committed him plenty of times I've had people that have commented on YouTube or have commented on some of my tweets in the past year or so since I started this show back up that uh they love what shamey was doing over in Colombia and they actually pull for South Carolina to a certain degree when Oklahoma is not playing so you know there's clearly a real deep relationship between shame Beamer and the Oklahoma Sooners football program and in a way Norman Oklahoma's probably a second home to coach Beamer and his entire family 1A being Columbia South Carolina 1B being Blacksburg Virginia and a second home being Norman so this is going to be an emotional return probably for Shane Beamer and his entire family once this game takes place another reason why this is going to be a big storyline game from South Carolina's perspective the Gamecocks are going to have a great opportunity here to kill a certain narrative that's already circulated been floating around SEC circles and also National circles when it comes to the perception of all the teams in the SEC and that narrative is this as soon as Oklahoma and Texas officially joined the SEC heading into 2024 teams like South Carolina Kentucky Mississippi state Missouri and Vanderbilt are all automatically going to be knocked down a couple of pegs behind those two football programs and here's the thing nobody from South Carolina's end is going to argue against the collective history of Oklahoma's football program everyone knows and can admit that stacking that up to what South Carolina has done Oklahoma has clearly had a lot more success from a historical standpoint but here's the thing saying that Oklahoma is just going to immediately get to basically cut in line ahead of South Carolina like some schoolyard bully in a sense in a lunch line in Middle School South Carolina should take serious offense to that they really and truthfully should because the Gamecocks have done a lot of good things the last couple years they defeated multiple top 15 opponents they've ended the college football playoff hopes of two of their bigger rivals in Tennessee at Clemson Oklahoma what have they done in the last year or two yeah they want a bunch of Big 12 championships and yes they've made the college football playoff multiple times or at least they did under Lincoln Riley but they didn't do anything with that and then the last couple of years I mean it's been kind of okay to say the least but nothing really great nothing Earth shattering so for South Carolina they would have an opportunity to send a message to Oklahoma early on that listen don't look at us as like your little brother that you're going to love while you're here and you're going to love partly because you think you're going to beat up on us every time you play us don't look at us that way we're coming we have been coming for a good while now and we are not going to roll over for you there'd be no better way to upend this entire Narrative of Oklahoma just simply being ahead of South Carolina based on historical premise then for the Gamecocks to beat the Sooners in their first meet against them and nonetheless on their home field that's something to watch as a South Carolina Gamecock fan once this matchup takes place and then the last sort of narrative or storyline here is Brett venables who used to be a big part of South Carolina's rivalry against Clemson will be facing the Gamecocks once again this time as a head coach more than likely for the Oklahoma Sooners now venables did go six and seven in year one in Norman back in 2022 obviously again not a great season by any means for Oklahoma and unless things completely fall apart this upcoming fall I do think that venables is still going to be their head coach in 2024. I've always kind of felt like that admittedly Brent venables is a great coordinator a really good coach a guy that has a ton of intensity is a really good recruiter and as an assistant coach is flat at one of the best you can get on the defensive side of the ball I felt that way when he was at Clemson for all those years and his defenses quite frankly got the better South Carolina on the majority of occasions when they played one another but as a head coach I don't see the same way I personally am in the camp of I think that brand of animals is not going to work out long term at Oklahoma and either way you know this is a chance for South Carolina to maybe get some revenge against Brent venables as he has now embarked on a new role at a new school I'll be at a school that he knows quite well in Oklahoma and with a team that right now talent wise is just not there and it's not going to be there in the first year they joined the SEC I'm not going to make it out like Oklahoma's going to be like a four and eight five and seven team in year one in the Southeastern Conference but I certainly don't expect them to be World beaters so the Gamecocks that got a chance to exact some revenge against Brent venables have a really emotional Welcome Home For Shame Beamer and his entire family and also completely wipe away a narrative about Oklahoma and Texas just being immediately ahead of South Carolina in the SEC pecking order Oklahoma Texas I think they know this but I don't think they also fully realize this they're going to have Targets on their backs when they join this conference in 2024 because for the majority of these teams like South Carolina Kentucky and others they're going to be out to get them because they're going to be sick and tired of hearing about how these two programs are better than you and it's going to be that way from the moment they join this league onward they're gonna get sick of that so we'll see if South Carolina can kill that narrative early when they go to Norman Oklahoma in 2024. all right now let's Zoom back out for the last few minutes of today's show and let's take a broad look at South Carolina's 2024 SEC schedule because we've talked about the obvious Omission with Georgia we've talked about the fact that Oklahoma is involved in their schedule now let's look at the rest of the games because this entire schedule as a whole is completely out of left field if you're a South Carolina fan real quickly here are the SEC games for South Carolina in 2024. they have home games against LSU Texas A M alt Miss and Missouri and they've got Road games against Alabama Oklahoma Kentucky and Vanderbilt now my main takeaway from this entire schedule is one simple statement welcome to the new sec because this is the way it's going to be now from 2024 onward South Carolina is going to face four teams out of this entire group that are currently in the SEC Western Division the Gamecocks have not played LSU since 2015 when they went down to Baton Rouge because of all the historic and horrible floods that took place in the Midlands here of South Carolina they haven't played Ole Miss since 2020. the Gamecocks are not played in Tuscaloosa Alabama since 2009. no matter what you think about the fact they got to play Bama they eventually owe them that one and then of course you've got Oklahoma thrown in there as well there's no Florida there's no Georgia and there's no Tennessee on this schedule which is going to be really really weird for every South Carolina fan that pays close attention to this football program the average distance for every road game that sapcon is going to be playing in 2024 in their conference slate is 593 and a quarter miles the average distance for every team that's going to be traveling to Colombia in 2024 in the SEC slate is 800 miles that is a lot of traveling and just goes to show you that again this is no longer a regionally Centric sport this is now all about branding all about I guess markets still to a certain degree but mainly about getting the most notable programs in college football to be a part of your conference that's a whole other discussion of course for another day regarding some of these other games the Gamecocks do get Kentucky in this slate which is notable because we talked a couple weeks ago about Ross Dellinger at Insider for sports illustrator and his reporting on who the permanent opponents would be for each of the SEC teams in a 177 or eight game scheduling model which is again what the SEC is seemingly going with in 2024 and he mentioned Kentucky being South Carolina's permanent opponent that seems to shake out with this schedule Ole Miss another team that is on this schedule this is an intriguing addition again South Carolina has only played Ole Miss a couple times in the past 10 15 years or so they played him I know back in 2018 in Oxford then they played in during the covet season in Oxford once again and a lot of the Gamecocks matchups against the rebels have been really really close ball games of course we all remember 2009 when the Gamecocks defeat the number four Ole Miss Rebels 16 to 10 that was the night that Sam storm in essence was born in Colombia we all know the shootouts that have taken place back in 2018 and 2020 either way this is going to be a very fun game between both programs two programs that are sort of viewed in a similar light in the SEC hierarchy so that's an important game for South Carolina fans to Circle in my opinion the Gamecocks do get Vanderbilt because honestly you know Vanderbilt in South Carolina again they're kind of lumped together in that bottom group of course though nobody's as bad as Vanderbilt when it comes to football but the Gamecocks do get an easy Road game with the Commodores and then you got the LSU Tigers who again um I think the Gamecock fans should appreciate still what LSU did for the program for the team uh throughout those dark days when the Gamecocks and all South Carolina residents were dealing with some historically bad floods back in 2015 the Tigers hosted South Carolina in Baton Rouge played the fight song and everything treats South Carolina like they were the home team still it was uh it was really touching when all that took place so the Gamecocks now we're gonna get that home game nine years later and we'll be able to host Brian Kelly's LSU Tigers here in Columbia that's gonna be intriguing just simply because South Carolina has never faced off against a Brian Kelly coached football team before and also LSU now is seemingly the second best team potentially in this entire conference right behind Georgia Alabama of course might have something to say about that but again I think right now you got to put LSU in that number one spot in the Western Division they got a lot of talent returning for 2023 so that's going to draw a lot of eyeballs simply because of what LSU has accomplished in the past several years in college football the one question that I do have remaining after seeing this entire schedule and going through all these teams is if this schedule is including the gamecock's three potential permanent opponents if the SEC went with a 366 or nine game scheduling model eventually who what the heck would be their three permanent opponents out of all the teams I just mentioned because you look at some of these other teams in the SEC and some of their punts they have on their 2024 schedule and it kind of matches up with my hypothesis that again the three permanent opponents would be odd there Florida for example they got teams like Georgia LSU Kentucky and Tennessee some of y'all may say well Andrew those are a lot of organic natural rivalries that Florida has okay let's go to some other teams Kentucky they got Florida and Tennessee on their schedule Arkansas has got LSU Missouri Texas and Texas A M we've talked about this before when it comes to Natural rivalries in this conference South Carolina just ability does not have a whole lot they've got Georgia to a certain extent they have maybe Florida or Tennessee but that's really about it sapcon just does not have a lot of other teams where it's like they faced them for over a half century and it would hurt a lot of their fan base if they couldn't play them anymore they just don't have that like a lot of these other teams do so out of the teams I mentioned earlier I mean you know Missouri I guess might make some sense because yes both teams you know the traveling will cancel out every other year there have been a lot of really good games between both teams they have a mayor's cup that they fight over every year both teams play in a city named Columbia and have been a part of the two most recent expansion years for this conference so there are definitely certain tie-ins that you could throw in there with Missouri Kentucky we've talked about that if they're the permanent opponent for an eight-game sketching model you gotta believe that they're one for a nine game scheduling model but then who else out of these teams that I've mentioned Ole Miss probably not Texas A M Nevers made sense to begin with LSU no Bama no Oklahoma no Vanderbilt I think of saffron got Vanderbilt Kentucky Missouri in a hypothetical 366 scheduling model I think that SEC uh teams would be very upset about that I think they would say that South Carolina has gotten a very soft Trio of permanent opponents and admittedly from a historical standpoint I think you would have to agree with that premise so that's why I still have the question remaining of who with their three-point opponents being a 366 model maybe I'm overthinking it too much but again just based on what I've seen with some of these other team schedules you would think that South Carolina would have some obvious selections here as maybe a permanent opponent and a 366 but you don't see Florida on here you don't see Tennessee on here so we'll see how all that shakes out as the next couple years continue to progress and whether or not this conference moves on to a 366 model gonna be interesting to see how all of that unfolds but with that being said y'all that's going to do a 40-day show of the locks on Gamecocks podcast I bet y'all thoroughly enjoyed Today's Show as always what are your thoughts on the Gamecocks no longer playing the Georgia Bulldogs on an annual basis what are your overall feelings surrounding that what are your thoughts on the Gamecocks playing Oklahoma first between them and Texas in 2024 and all the storylines that it will entail and then lastly what are your overall thoughts on South class SEC slate on their 2024 schedule let me know your thoughts on all those topics Down Below in the comments section if you watched Today's Show on YouTube or show me direct message on Twitter at Aline underscore SC if you listen to Today's Show on an audio podcast app once again thank you all so much for tuning in to today's edition of the lifetime Gamecocks podcast I hope you have a great rest of your first day and I will catch y'all on the next show of the locked on Gamecocks podcast [Music] foreign