The UCF Knights recently completed their best season in school history, finishing 13-0 with a win over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
UCF also claimed themselves as national champions following their undefeated 2017 season. No poll named the Knights champions, but a former BCS component, the Colley Matrix, did list UCF number one.
Alabama, who defeated Georgia 26-23 in overtime, claimed the College Football National Championship and were ranked first in the final AP and USA Today Coaches polls.
While Alabama and UCF can’t settle it on the field this season, a group of UCF fans have paid for a billboard asking the Crimson Tide to play the Knights in a home-and-home football series.
UCF with a message for @AlabamaFTBL on McFarland Blvd. in Tuscaloosa. @BamaOnLine247 @Tide1029fm pic.twitter.com/J1ijRMywWq
— Travis Reier (@travisreier) January 10, 2018
Alabama hasn’t played a non-conference home-and-home series since facing off with Penn State in 2010 and 2011. Instead, the Crimson Tide under Nick Saban have shifted to playing marquee season-opening non-conference games at neutral sites.
So it’s unlikely that Alabama will all of a sudden grant a random “We Want Bama” request to play UCF in a home-and-home series. Instead, UCF might have better luck scheduling a neutral-site game against Alabama.
How about 2020 in Tampa? Both teams need a week one opponent that season, and Alabama has proven that they will schedule a good opponent in Florida. The Crimson Tide are set to open the 2018 season in Orlando vs. Louisville.
uh, fans.
Frost is gone, and UCF will likely start to sink back down to upper mid-level again.
Following up. Alabama would be very open to a Kickoff neutral site game – but only if UCF were a P5 counting opponent. Alabama never schedules a non-conference road game. Face reality, they schedule 3 rented opponents and a P5 neutral site game. UCF is neither a rented opponent nor do they count as a P5 for a neutral site.
They will continue to schedule that way indefinitely, as the playoff committee decided to overlook their weak (for a P5 school) schedule. essentially green lighting this. tOSU faced 10 P5 opponents including a road OOC. Mind you I agreed with picking Alabama, but I do cringe at their scheduling policy. They will not even schedule a home and home with somebody like Texas or Michigan which would command maximum ticket and TV value both way. Heck they wont even do that with a UCLA or Virginia, because they try to minimize risk, knowing they are pretty much a lock for the playoffs barring no 2nd loss.
In that reality UCF can never get a home game with Alabama. Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC can’t get a home and home series with them either. It is what it is. UCF can possibly get one with a Michigan or North Carolina type school. And that is the type of school I’d target.
Frankly right now UCF fans think their program is perpetually better than it is, or at least wish it was. This year was he best it will ever be, so enjoy it, and don’t act like idiots. It makes people dislike you when you act like a victim or entitled.
Conferences are known to grant exemptions for games. However, it’s highly doubtful Alabama will schedule UCF.
Build you rep the way FSU did and then you can get some games you want
Y’all had a P5 team coming into your building this year in GA Tech and Scott Frost ducked the game. But now y’all want to play Alabama? Cute.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-hurricane-irma-ucf-national-guard-20170912-story.html
The freaking National Guard was using the stadium. Have some sense. And you really think UCF was ducking Georgia Tech? Grow up.
In five years, UCF has had two New Year’s Six/BCS bowl wins, with an undefeated season and one-loss season. That’s not far off from what FSU did under Bowden in the 80’s prior to his first national title. The difference is that back then, there were dozens of independents and more opportunities for teams to make a name for themselves. Now, schools like UCF are locked into their league indefinitely, and all the other big time Indies are in P5 leagues. Also, back in the 80’s, SEC schools played 6 league games and 5 non league games, so an Alabama may have been more willing 30+ years ago to schedule someone like UCF due to a need to fill out the schedule than they are now.
Is there any doubt that schools like Houston, UCF, USF, Cincinnati, and others are doing everything they possibly can to create a challenging schedule? It’s just that most P5 schools tell them, “No.”
Don’t bother asking him to grow up as this is a typical remark from a Bama fan. Hurricanes mean nothing to them.
This is fan(atics) for ya!
So they cruise through the American G5 conference & beat Maryland (BIG), beat Auburn (barely) in the bowl & now want to prove themselves playing Bama. Bama would not even consider them for a neutral site game & who knows what UCF will look like in 2020. Bash Bama scheduling but they do ALWAYS play the big boys come the 1st of the year no matter what conference , Michigan, USC, FSU, Clemson, Va.Tech, Louisville & W.Virginia sprinkled with a little Wisconsin.
Once again, congrats to going 13-0 but still ended up #6 at the end, UCF would not do well in a P5 conference, week in & week out.
They said the same about TCU, who’s done pretty well for themselves in a P5 conference.
Stuart, you are correct in that Alabama is most certainly minimizing risk and milking the system that loves and protects them. This is the UCF fans point. So why not continue to take shots at the rigged system. They might not have the official National Championship. However, they certainly have the National Stage at the moment. #CommitteeDotards
It took TCU several years just as it would UCF. In a state with the talent Florida has (and Texas for TCU) it is possible. It would not happen overnight
Michael in Raleigh, Welcome! Finally someone else here who knows the game and the history of the beyond 2006.
They could have very easily moved the game to Atlanta or even Birmingham as other Florida schools did
Michael,
Respected, TCU has done well in the BIG-12, a conference that is & has been owned only by Oklahoma. Since 2008 the Sooners have a 7-1 record against the Horn Frogs. Now put UCF in the ACC, SEC, BIG & Pac-12 & see what happens. In my opinion, the Knights would not be able to handle teams like The Ohio State, Michigan St, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Washington, Clemson, The U…etc, week in & week out. They would need several years of Great recruiting to do so, my point is just because they went 13-0 & beat Auburn does not mean they’re the greatest or deserve a shot at the title. Every year a G5 team does great & gets invited to a big bowl. It is easy to pick on someone like Auburn when you have 4 weeks to prepare & honestly Auburn did not want to be there, they were thinking about CFP but the Dawgs put a stop to that. Not taking anything away from the Knights, now that Frost is gone, we will see what happens.
Watch out for Nebraska in 2-3 years, BIG may just be getting stronger.
In my opinion, UCF would have gone anywhere between 9-3 and 11-1 with Alabama’s schedule, Anywhere between 8-4 and 10-2 with Ohio State’s schedule and anywhere between 10-2 and 12-0 with Wisconsin’s schedule. In essence, I think this year they could have put up similar season results as the big boys. That said, they probably couldn’t do that year in and year out unless they had a coach who didn’t see UCF as a bridge job.
Frost let the team scatter during game week, he didn’t keep them together. That’s why when GA Tech offered to have the game in Atlanta and reverse the H&H series, it wasn’t an option. Frost knew what he was doing.
Also I am not sure why UCF wants a series with Alabama since they already have 2 OOC P5 scheduled from 2018-2020 as it is.
Now Scott Frost has the head job at Nebraska it should be easy for them to convince him to give them a home and home series That will help fill their needs
True…only problem, Frost knows how good UCF really is…
Here is a typical remark from a Bama fan. Beat OU and Clemson, like Bama and Georgia did. Then you can get a game against Bama. You can’t skip ahead just because you were the big fish in your small pond. Did you have a great season? Yes. Am I happy that you beat AU? Absolutely! But in the end the CFP committee doesn’t look at the AAC as a power conference. It’s no different than Western Michigan last year. Perfect season until they played Wisconsin. There seems to always be a team with a perfect season in the non Power 5 conferences, MAC, AAC, Sunbelt, Mountain West etc… but that’s it. It should stay there. It’s not much different than people asking if Bama, Clemson, Georgia or OU could beat the worst team in the NFL. No. I doubt they could. You can dream of that opportunity to find out but that day will never come. And no one should be audacious enough to declare themselves the National Champs and throw themselves a parade for a self proclaimed title that will never be recognized. That ALONE should get the biggest eye roll from any fan of any team that made it to the CFP, winners or losers, when they see this article and that billboard.
Alabama? A home-and-home with another school? Hell, Alabama is afraid to leave the SEC footprint for a regular season game. They sure as hell won’t do a home-and-home with UCF.
The only way Alabama and UCF play in a series is if one game is at Tuscaloosa, and the other is at a “neutral site” (Jacksonville, Atlanta, Arlington, etc.). Most big-name teams — particularly those from the SEC and the Big Ten — aren’t interested in the “mountain going to the molehill”, and many won’t “do” regular-season games not played on a Saturday. Be assured that if you ever see a game scheduled between Florida and Troy (or UL-Monroe, FAU, FIU, etc.), it’s going to be played on a Saturday in Gainesville.
Alabama’s stadium seats twice as many as UCFs. Why would Alabama want to play there? Most of their fans wouldn’t have a chance to get in.
UCF’s crowing is a joke, though. They’ve not earned the opportunity to call out Power 5 teams, outside of Maryland.
So true!
Actually when Bama played at Vanderbilt this year, they only hold around 40,550 & most of them were Bama fans & that’s when Vandy was 3-0. It was funny watching the game, it looked like a Bama home game with the sea of red in the stands. It would be a good excuse to go to Disney World.
And Auburn. . . #10 Auburn
Miami Caniac you hit the nail right on the coffin,as many times OU beaten Alabama,forget about it.The Kicker is not only would Alabama would play UCF or a Louisville in the Citrus Bowl or Jacksonville,they would as a matter of fact they would play USC,Ohio State,Michigan,or a Oregon in Atlanta or Arlington.UA has been pussyfoot about home and home series since their particular outings with UCLA(loss both games in 2000 & ’01),Hawaii(loss at Honolulu in ’03),and again lost to Oklahoma the last few times they have met.Interesting you through a monkey on the wrench when you mentioned FIU,when I think of FIU,I was only curious whether the other school named the PANTHERS,your team’s arch rival PITT,should SUE FIU FOR THOSE UNIFORMS,gotta say they SORT OF LOOK FAMILIAR to one of the THROWBACK UNIs(except for the helmets PENDING WHICH COLOR THEY WEAR)!!!!!?
Miami Caniac was on point about Alabama having no cahoots to play UCF in a home and home,Alabama been playing chicken since losing notable home and home games(to UCLA in 2000 and ’01/Hawaii in ’03/OU in ’02 and ’03 and in the Sugar Bowl in New Year’s 2014).That’s why you would only see them play a USC,Ohio State,Michigan,FSU,Oregon,or even Kansas State in Arlington,Atlanta,or Jacksonville as well as UCF.It’s funny you mentioned FIU,when I was thinking about FIU,I was thinking about whether the school should be SUED by another school everybody knows well NICKNAMED the PANTHERS aka arch rival of Miami’s school PITT(except over the FB helmets pending what color is being worn)!!!!!?
We see this every couple of years. In the 90s it was Southern Miss. In the mid 2000s, Hawaii and Utah were all the rage. Then followed Boise State. Two years ago, it was Tom Hermans’ Houston Cougars. Now Central Florida. Only one of these aforementioned programs, UTAH, ever “put their money where that mouth is” and joined a P5 conference. All of these other programs are Cinderella stories with top notch coaches using them as a stepping stone job, just like Lane Kiffin is doing now at FAU. In every case, these programs pulled off a massive upset against a P5 power house, which I’m sure Kiffin will accomplish at FAU as well . I don’t hate these mid major programs, but let’s pump the brakes on “we are national champions” chest pounding. Other than Utah, all these other programs are novelty or fads. Look at Boise State, they haven’t been the same since beating Oklahoma in the fiesta bowl in 07. Then Chris Petersen left, and they can’t even win their own conference. Remember, stepping stone coaches at stepping stone jobs..Any of these teams can have an undefeated regular season with a bowl victory upset over a P5 blue blood, but how about long term sustained success? Doubtful. Frost is gone. I think he will be dynamic at Nebraska. I’ll buy Scott Frost stock. But UCF?? I’m not buying that stock. I’m selling, bec think about it: it will only go down hill for UCF from here
Also remember: a person, or group of persons can CLAIM anything they want in life. I CAN CLAIM I’m a billionaire. But claiming something doesn’t make it so. That’s often referred to as wishful thinking.
Why would Bama want to? The SEC schedule is brutal enough without throwing in a tougher than patsy opponent. I have no doubt that Bama could handily best UCF and would do so probably 9 out of 10 times. Not that UCF is weak, they’re just not near the caliber of Bama-the recruiting alone tells you there’s superior talent at Bama. It’s like accepting a fight with a younger upstart kid in your neighborhood, you’re expected to win, but should you lose…
I have no doubt that UCF could beat Bama either, should Bama not come prepared, turnovers-UCF is certainly the caliber team that could give Bama a run should any of those events occur.
Nama doesn’t need more strength of schedule-running the table in the toughest conference ever is more than enough. Nama doesn’t need the injury risk, and they have little or nothing to gain and nearly everything to lose.
In this scenario the risk just doesn’t match the reward.
Oh, im not even a Bama fan and I’d love to see that smug smirk wiped off Saban’s face.