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.
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.
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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