New Year's Day brings about a lot of different feelings for a lot of different people. It is a day of resolutions for many, a day of hangovers for many, and for sports fans, it might be both of those mixed with college football. The NFL has Thanksgiving, the NBA has Christmas, and college football has New Year's.
There are seemingly more and more bowl games each year, and before January 1st, many of them do not have much significance to the common fan of the sport. The semifinal games did take place in December this year, but I can say with very little doubt that people were not running to their televisions on December 21st to watch BYU play Western Michigan in a battle of two 7-6 teams in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Now that it is officially 2019 though, the big games are here.
If you are a college football team playing today, you are most likely very good and well respected. The Central Florida Golden Knights were indeed on the schedule today. but I'm not sure if they can be labeled as both of those things. UCF went undefeated for the second consecutive season in 2018, but lost earlier to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl. This came one year after going undefeated in the regular season and then beating Auburn in the Peach Bowl. Until today, the Golden Knights had won 25 consecutive games, and they only lost by eight points to LSU, so it was certainly not an embarrassing defeat, as LSU is the 11th ranked team in the country. They were clearly more competitive than Notre Dame was in a 30-3 loss to Clemson in one of the national semifinal games last week. So the question now has become, should UCF be playing in those semifinal games in the near future if they continue to win?
The Golden Knights are in the American Athletic Conference, and while it is surely not on the level of the Big 10 or SEC, it is not as though UCF is playing a bunch of junior colleges with rosters full of walk-ons. It is no fault of UCF's that the other schools in their conference cannot beat them, and they will continue to put the college football world on notice if they keep finishing seasons with a zero in the loss column. The narrative in professional sports is that you can only play the teams on your schedule. If those teams aren't good, then you have no obligation to feel bad for them, so it seems that might be the case here for UCF as well. The only problem is, in college football, you might not be able to improve the teams in your conference, but you can control who you play in non-conference games. If UCF wants to take the next step and become a nationally respected team, they are not going to be able to mix in non-conference games with the likes of South Carolina State and Florida Atlantic to a schedule that is already much weaker than teams in better conferences. So that recently brought about an interesting offer for the Golden Knights to consider.
When you think of college football in the state of Florida, I highly doubt that the first team that comes to your mind is the Golden Knights. You most likely think of the Florida State Seminoles, the Florida Gators, or the Miami Hurricanes. Those are the big name teams. They might not be national title contenders every year, and recently all three of them have actually had more downs than ups, but they still remain the faces of college football in the state. If UCF wants to become a nationally respected team, they have to prove themselves against those teams. That's why when the Gators athletic director came to UCF with an offer to play three games in upcoming seasons with the Golden Knights, it was a chance to gain that respect. Despite that though, it does not seem like UCF is going to make that happen.
Florida offered to play UCF in a 2-for-1 series, with two home games for Florida and one home game for UCF in a three year span. College football non-conference opponents are determined five years in advance, so the earliest these games would occur is 2025, but if UCF really wanted to prove it was worthy of a shot to play for a national title, this could have been a start to that process, and I think they made a bad choice to pass it up. UCF athletic director Danny White said that because of his team's success over the past two seasons, they had earned the right to play a 1-for-1 series with Florida, instead of having to play the Gators on the road twice in return for only getting to play them once at home.
There is no question that the Golden Knights have been very good over a two year span, but before that, they were not exactly lighting up the scoreboard. In 2017 and 2018, the team went undefeated. However, in 2016, they went 6-7, and that included a loss to Arkansas State in a bowl game, and a road loss to fifth ranked Michigan by a score of 51-14. In 2015, the Golden Knights did not win a game all season, and the only ranked team they played all year was the 21st ranked Houston Cougars, and Houston won that game by seven touchdowns.
Going from a winless season in 2015, to consecutive undefeated regular seasons in 2017 and 2018, and capping off 2017 with a win over Auburn is actually quite a feat, and the team deserves a lot of credit for being able to do that. Three years ago, if anyone saw UCF on their schedule, they probably were not too concerned, and I am sure that if the Florida Gators saw them on their schedule, they would look at that game as not much more than an early season tune-up before they began conference play in the SEC.
Now, that isn't the case. Now when teams see UCF on their schedule, they know they will be facing a good team. If the Golden Knights can continue to win, then over the course of the next five years, maybe they could potentially get a shot at playing in the playoffs and for a national championship. The first step to doing that though, is putting big name schools on your schedule, and it doesn't get much more big name than the Florida Gators. If anything, UCF should be confident that they can beat the Gators, so they should have jumped at the opportunity to play them, no matter where the game was.
Respect in anything is gained over time. It isn't something that is earned overnight. UCF is on the road to gaining that national respect, but they are certainly not there yet. And it isn't as though the Golden Knights haven't played the Gators before either. The last time the two teams played was in 2006. That game ended with Florida winning 42-0 and eventually going on to win the national title. A rematch was scheduled for 2007, but UCF decided instead to pay a $100,000 buyout to not play that game. That certainly is not the move of a school that would be respected across the country.
I understand that 2006 was a long time ago. That Gators team had guys like Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin on it, and their NFL careers have both ended. So, it was a while ago. But, if UCF really thinks it is worthy of national credibility, then that means building a powerhouse program over the course of multiple years. If they continue to recruit well and perform well, maybe five years from now, they could beat Florida, even if it meant doing it on the road. Doing that would absolutely garner respect from fans across the country. That's why I believe that UCF's refusal to play by the rules of the Gators in this case is a mistake.
If the college football playoff does eventually expand to eight teams, then maybe the Golden Knights would have a chance to prove themselves on a national stage against the elite of college football. While I do believe that it will eventually expand, there is certainly no guarantee of it, and also no guarantee of when it will occur. Until then though, they are just going to be the team that finishes with zero losses because of a schedule that is much weaker than anything in the SEC or ACC.
Things in life are not always fair, and when you are a small school in a mediocre conference in college football, things are often times never fair. That is just a fact. The best way for UCF to make things fair is to take any chance they get, and by passing up this offer from Florida, they will continue to have to live with that fact.
By the year 2025, it is definitely possible that the playoff will have expanded. And if UCF wants to be playing in it, then a non-conference win against Florida would sure look good to the committee. It will mean more of a chance to win a title, more of a chance to recruit bigger and better players, and most importantly, a chance at a whole lot more money.
When college football began, powerhouse teams were schools like Colgate and Penn. No one gave any respect to Florida or Florida State. It took decades for those schools to rise, and now the tables have completely turned, and Colgate and Penn are not going to be playing for an FBS national title any time soon.
For UCF to get the ball rolling on their rise to national fame, they need to start with some concessions like this. They might not like it now, but they wouldn't be the first team to slowly garner respect and success. If they want an example of a school that did just that, then they wouldn't have to look very far. There is a team in Gainesville, not far from UCF's own campus, that is a perfect example of how small steps can eventually bring about big results.
Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers were somewhat outplayed last night in St. Louis, but they capitalized on opportunities when they did get them, Henrik Lundqvist had a great game, and the Rangers got the win. They will make a quick stop back home to face Pittsburgh tomorrow before heading out on the road again for three more games. With ten games to go until the All Star break, a nice strong finish of the unofficial first half of the season could mean legitimate playoff contention for the second half.
Daily Giants Update: Since the season is over and we are still probably a while away from any real significant news on the team, it's time to focus on the teams that are still playing. The playoffs start this weekend.
Daily NBA Update: James Harden and Russell Westbrook have made the triple-double almost a nightly occurrence now, which is pretty amazing since it is a feat that requires a whole lot of greatness on any given night. Stephen Curry also has made scoring a whole lot of points a common occurrence as well, but he has been injured recently, which has always been a problem for him. Even so, the Warriors won last night and are now tied with Denver back atop the Western Conference.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Still waiting for a day to sum up this offseason, but it hasn't come yet.
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