“2017 National Champions”? Sure, bless their hearts and all, but I think Andy Staples is right about this:
That’s what makes UCF athletic director Danny White’s decision to go all-in on the national title claim such an ingenious move. You may hate it, and you may hate UCF for it. But love it or hate it, you have a strong opinion about UCF. How many strong opinions do you have about Fresno State? About Houston? About Toledo? You care about UCF, even if you feel negatively about the Knights. You know who they are, and that matters a lot to them. Brand awareness is half the battle, and White has done more in months to conquer that half than most ADs at that level do in their entire careers.
Is Central Florida going to be a factor in a four-team playoff setting? Nah. Is it going to be part of the playoff expansion discussion? Most likely.
And that’s half the battle right there.
Get The Picture 
“There really is no such thing as bad publicity.” Madonna
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It’s a Fake News/pre-midterm campaigning “build a wall/sign an executive order” move if ever there was one.
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UCF and the similarity in name to USF, and even FIU to a lesser extent, causes confusion to the casual fan outside of Florida, and remains a hurdle to national recognition. I have only recently gotten to where I know who is which without pause to think about it.
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especially when you realize that USF is in Tampa and NOBODY in Flarduh considers Tampa to be South Fla…not even in the southern HALF of the state (they are on or slightly above the frost line FFS)
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Kiffin’s presence also helps with the distinction.
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You are right Art. UCF and USF need to change their names. Not joking. The names sound bush league. Hard to take a directional school seriously.
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The 8-team, auto-bid crowd needed a champion, and UCF was happy to fill their void.
Thank you, Gus. Did UCF underwrite your bloated contract?
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Exactly. this just makes me hate Auburn more. I didn’t think that was possible but there you have it.
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True. Other than the fact that it was the only thing on (sorry, NFL,) it’s highly unlikely that I would have given a damn about the game last night.
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If they go undefeated this season will they really double down and claim back to back national titles?
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Why not? After all , they have that impressive win against Memphis.
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They are really good at tooting their own horn even though it sounds like the novelty horn on a clown car.
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Just a FWIW moment that makes this a bit more interesting to Bulldawg Nation, but some models are projecting a UGA-UCF bowl matchup.
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They are currently on a 1 game winning streak against us. Thanks Mark Richt.
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Thanks NCAA mainly, that whole season was odd from the get go with AJ Green fiasco.
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But their small stadium was nowhere near full for that big Temple game.
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If they are that good, why don’t they do the old FSU model of anyone, anywhere and play some real teams on the road with no return games or 2 for 1s?
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Exactly. They are bogus and real CFB fans know it. Good team, capable of beating most teams in a one and done situation but not built to stand up to a big boy schedule pr even a limited playoff situation. I don’t buy the any publicity, bad or not, is always good for you. They picked a fight they couldn’t win and turned a really good chance to be positively regarded like Boise into being ridiculed by serious folks. There time would have come had they not stuck it in everyone’s face. And again, blame AU for all of this.
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Mac, they won a shootout with perennial P-5 powerhouse Temple last night. What is it going to take for you to grudgingly award UCF the respect they so deserve? 😉
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FWIW, let the committee leave a one loss, non conference champ P-5 team out of the playoff. Put UCF in as 4 seed, let them play 1 seed in the first round. This smells like UGA v Hawaii, or ND v Alabama ’13: An over-hyped media darling against a truly good football team. UCF likely gets mercy ruled at the start of the 4th.
It may cost someone a playoff spot (hopefully not us) but it ought to shut the fuckers up for a while, anyway.
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Barring exclusion to UGA, I absolutely want the 1-4 matchup to be Bama-UCF. Primal bloodbath.
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I’m hoping that if ND goes undefeated they get the privilege of playing Alabama in the semis if we can’t make it.
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That would be fun, much like last time. But I will hope someone takes them down and they miss out because they aren’t playing Clemson like a good half arse conference champ should. Why should the ACC get two teams? Usually don’t deserve one.
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Alabama-UCF and Clemson-Notre Dame in the first round would be fine with me, if that’s what it takes to make UCF crawl back into obscurity.
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Instead of Alabama, Let’s all pull for LSU to sneak up on them this weekend, and we get another shot at LSU for some payback. We win the SEC, and get UCF in the first round. After a glorified scrimmage (Leave the starters in the entire game, tho) Round two we get ND who by some miracle has bested Clemson and extend our win streak….
Hey, a guy can dream can’t he?
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The committee is not going to leave the Big Ten out of the playoff revenue stream two years in a row and Notre Dame gets a bye during championship week.
UCF will get a Fiesta Bowl bid to play a disappointed conference runner-up on December 29.
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Also, @Mac, It’s perfectly acceptable to blame auburn for anything, including global warming, prohibition, or a significant other’s foul temper….
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Claim it. Put it on everything and it will be true. How many national championships has Alabama claimed? No one will know in 50 years.
That program is going to be a monster someday. It wont be the last national championship they claim. I am pretty sure they are the largest school in the country right in the middle of one of the craziest football states in the country.
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Agree. Claim the 2013 crown with the Bortles’ team, too.
It’s never too late to claim one.
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I’m pretty sure that on one of the ads for the American Athletic conference last night, they referred to themselves as a POWER SIX conference.
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Yes, they seriously push “Power 6.”
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I guess if you are going to dive into the fantasy pool, you might as well dive in the deep end. “National Champions” and “Power 6”. They become more delusional every day. As others have said, what they need is to be matched up with a quality POWER FIVE school in a bowl and taken to the woodshed. Thanks to Auburn (something else we can hate them for) they have been overcome with delusions of grandeur. Unlike Boise State of years past, they are not battle tested against true powerhouse programs. When your signature win of the year is over Temple, you really need to keep quiet.
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I see your point on bad pub being better than no pub, but I still question where it’s getting them and their conference.
1. You still called them Central Florida. (who doesn’t?) But apparently they hate being called that—so they’re clearly not being noticed / listened to that much.
2. I believe their shenanigans are affecting the entire AAC’s ability to schedule really good games. They’ll claim everybody’s scared to play them–Ok, fine. It’s certainly a lose-lose. But as long as the AAC’s on the outside looking in, increased hurdles to good scheduling may give them a moral high ground (“the power 5 is scared to play us!”), but they’re winning the battle to lose the war.
3. IMO, the worst thing these G5 schools, who are by definition trying to build a better brand, do is switch up their damn uniforms every weekend. What was that garbage they were wearing last night. Want to build an image ingrained in people’s brains……..stop with the wannabe new flashy Unis every week and maybe folks will start to remember who you are.
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“You still called them Central Florida. (who doesn’t?) But apparently they hate being called that…”
Friends who went there told me that UCF stands for “U Can’t Fail”. Apparently no grade is lower than a C.
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I know this: I’m rooting for them to lose.
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If they really want a shot at big time football, then go the independent route. BYU used to be this delusional in believing they were some kind of power program, but they realized small-time conferences held them back so they went independent and scheduled mostly power five teams. It’s also why you don’t hear anything about them anymore.
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I’m not sure what the future holds for all these programs that insist they play at the top level of college football with 1/3rd of the revenue (and worsening). It’s borderline criminal IMO what they’re doing to state / university coffers to try and keep up with the Joneses………Oh, they’re really good at circular / layered accounting, but there’s no way around the fact that they use tens of millions of $$ annually taken from sources not the result of people buying what they’re selling.
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The fake national title may be UCF’s blue football field that generates national interest and a cash infusion.
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