Central Florida just completed an undefeated season after dispatching Auburn in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year's Day. That same Auburn team defeated both SEC teams (Georgia and Alabama) that are playing for the National Championship next week. It's quite an accomplishment for the Golden Knights of the American Athletic Conference. It's the first undefeated season in the school's brief football history (started in 1979) and is all the more impressive given their 2016 campaign that saw them finish 6-7 after losing the AutoNation Cure Bowl to Arkansas State, 31-13. What it DOESN'T do though is qualify UCF to be National Champions. However, as ESPN.com reports, that's what UCF Athletic Director Danny White is doing.
Look, I get it. Nobody beat UCF, so there's part of us that will always wonder. Could UCF beat Georgia? Could UCF beat Alabama? Their case is furthered by the fact that they beat the school (Auburn) that beat both of those teams. But let's face it, on the merits of their results alone, UCF did not position themselves to be considered one of the top 4 schools in the country and make themselves eligible for the college football playoff in its current construct.
UCF's non-conference opponents this season were Florida International (8-5), Maryland (4-8), and Austin Peay (8-4 in FCS). The only ranked team they beat all year (prior to the Auburn game) was Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game when Memphis was ranked 20th. Including UCF, only seven American Athletic Conference teams were bowl eligible. To their credit, UCF went 6-0 against the other six beating Memphis twice and not having to face Houston. But their resume doesn't read impressively. Let's compare UCF with the four playoff teams (pre bowl games).
Non-Conference Schedule:
Alabama: #3 Florida State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Mercer
Clemson: Kent, #13 Auburn, Citadel, #24 South Carolina
Georgia: Appalachian State, #24 Notre Dame, Samford, Georgia Tech
Oklahoma: UTEP, #2 Ohio State, Tulane
Central Florida: FIU, Maryland, Austin Peay
Each of the other four schools on this list had at least one ranked opponent in their non-conference schedule while Clemson has two.
Wins Versus Ranked Opponents:
Alabama: (3) #3 Florida State, #19 LSU, #16 Mississippi State
Clemson: (6) #13 Auburn, #14 L'ville, #12 VA Tech, #20 NC State, #24 South Carolina, #7 Miami
Georgia: (3) #24 Notre Dame, #17 Mississippi State, #2 Auburn
Oklahoma: (4) #2 Ohio State, #11 Oklahoma State, #6 TCU, #11 TCU
Central Florida: (1) #20 Memphis
Each of the other four schools had more impressive wins than UCF's victory over Memphis. Every other school had at least one win over a Top 10 team while Oklahoma had two.
Losses:
Alabama: @ #6 Auburn 26-14
Clemson: @ Syracuse 27-24
Georgia: @ #10 Auburn 40-17
Oklahoma: vs Iowa State 38-31
Central Florida: None
Only Oklahoma lost at home, and while no one's case is made stronger by a loss, all of these teams - save Alabama who lost to the #6 team in the country in their season finale - had time to bounce back with wins over ranked teams.
UCF's numbers just don't add up. How do you put them ahead of one of the four other teams? Maybe if they'd beaten Auburn in a non-conference game instead of Maryland, we can have a different conversation, but they didn't. For UCF's AD to assert that they're National Champions is ridiculous. It serves no purpose. Yes, they have the argument that nobody beat them, but they didn't play the schedules that the other teams did, and they didn't play in the National Championship Game. I'll say it again. THEY DIDN'T PLAY IN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. You don't get to decide you don't like the rules so you're declaring yourself champion. That's not how it works. All you're doing is cheapening the title for those that do have a chance to win it. It's the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. Take your Peach Bowl win, and you're undefeated season, and celebrate that. Is the system perfect? No, of course not. Could it be better? Of course it could.
And I think it SHOULD be better. I don't think we should have teams like UCF wondering how they'd do. In the world of college football where unbalanced schedules are the norms, it's difficult to evaluate strength of schedule and determine who actually is better than who. This is how I'd solve the problem:
There are 10 conferences in FBS:
American
ACC
Big 12
Big Ten
Conference USA
MAC
Mountain West
Pac-12
SEC
Sun Belt
You take your ten conference champions and your top 2 at large teams. If one of your independents (Notre Dame, etc) finishes in the Top 12 Nationally, they get one of the at large bids. Your top four teams get a bye. Everyone is seeded by National Ranking. Here's what your 12 team field would've looked like this year:
1. Clemson (ACC Champion)
2. Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion)
3. Georgia (SEC Champion)
4. Alabama (At Large #1)
5. Ohio State (Big Ten Champion)
6. Wisconsin (At Large #2)
7. USC (Pac-12 Champion)
8. UCF (American Champion)
9. Boise State (Mountain West Champion)
10. Toledo (MAC Champion)
11. FAU (Conference USA Champion)
12. Troy (Sun Belt Champion)
This would give you a bracket like this:
Round 1:
Ohio State vs Troy
Wisconsin vs FAU
USC vs Toledo
UCF vs Boise State
Round 2 (assuming favorites win):
Clemson vs UCF
Oklahoma vs USC
Georgia vs Wisconsin
Alabama vs Ohio State
And then the final four we have now. The downside is that it's two extra games for some teams. So a team like Georgia that is about to play its 15th game would now be looking at 17 games. Could you reduce that? I think you could. You split all your conferences into East/West or North/South, National/American, whatever your fancy, and Championship week now features every team playing their counterpart on the opposite side. To avoid confusion w/ home and away, each year alternates hosting between divisions. This match would eliminate one game from the conference slate all together. So now you're looking at one extra game for two teams. I think you could sell that. And if player safety is the concern, cancel a non-conference game across the board. Get rid of the Mercers and the Austin Peay's from the schedule. No offense to those teams, but they're the easiest games to justify cutting. I get that now you're reducing games for a lot of the other teams so there's a financial impact involved, but I think you'd get a better end product. It'll never happen, but that's what I'd do.
Anyways, back to the original discussion, while I wish UCF got a shot at a National Title - few love a great underdog story more than me - they aren't National Champions. Boise State doesn't have National Championship banners. Neither does TCU. UCF is no different. Get over it and move on.
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