Sellers’ Class Schedule Becomes National Talking Point — But the Full Story Tells a Different Story
A story about LaNorris Sellers’ course load spiraled well beyond South Carolina’s campus this week, eventually drawing in U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, who cited it while promoting his amendment to the Protect College Sports Act. Cassidy wrote on X, “We are seeing too many cases where the ‘student’ in student-athlete is becoming optional,” referencing a Gamecock247 report from Hale McGranahan — which drew over 2.2 million impressions — stating that Sellers isn’t taking any classes this semester outside of an internship.
The reality, according to Shane Beamer, is far less scandalous. Sellers is entering his final semester needing only a six-credit internship to graduate this December, a standard requirement for students in USC’s College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management. After completing a practicum last summer working with Contract Construction CEO Greg Hughes on the Williams-Brice Stadium renovation, he’s now interning at the Par Tee Golf Center in West Columbia — a normal academic path that nonetheless became fuel for critics questioning his commitment to school.
Beamer pushed back forcefully on that framing, pointing to details left out of the original coverage: “The same people out there that are criticizing failed to report that he’s been on the Dean’s List (GPA of at least 3.5) four times as a student here at Carolina, primarily taking in-person classes. (They) failed to report that he has a chance to be an academic All-American … and that he’s about to graduate from South Carolina.” Beamer broadened the point to the program as a whole, noting South Carolina football has posted its four-highest team GPAs over the last four semesters, including a 3.28 team GPA in fall 2025 and 3.194 last spring. “When you criticize one guy,” he said, “you’re criticizing all of our players and what they’re doing from an academic standpoint. And our guys are doing a great job.”
This isn’t a new phenomenon in college football. Two decades ago, USC quarterback Matt Leinart sparked a similar media firestorm when it emerged he only needed a ballroom dancing class to graduate ahead of his final season. More recently, Miami’s Carson Beck said during the Hurricanes’ College Football Playoff run that he’d already graduated and wasn’t taking classes — technically true, though he’d taken classes through the fall to stay eligible. Just a day after the Sellers story broke, Penn State’s Rocco Becht, who already holds a degree from Iowa State, revealed he was enrolled in a single online class — another data point Cassidy seized on for his amendment.
Ultimately, Beamer framed the criticism as more about spectacle than substance — the image of an SEC starting quarterback facing Alabama on Saturday and working a golf range on Sunday simply made for an easy story. His response was pointed but good-humored: “I hope he goes and has a hell of a time at the driving range, and hits 1,000 balls and does a good job over there because he’s earned it.”
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