Bringing in the new year with a 34-27 win over Auburn in the Chickfila Peach Bowl, UCF Knights were the only team to be undefeated in this year’s football season. Central Florida completed a 13-0 season with head coach Scott Frost, who is leaving the team to head coach at Nebraska, his alma mater. He was announced as Nebraska’s coach the day after UCF won the AAC title but wanted to stay on as Knight’s coach through the bowl game. This is the second time a team from the American Athletic Conference has beaten a Power Five team in the Peach Bowl, the first one being Houston beating Florida State in the Peach Bowl after the 2015 season.
After UCF’s victory over Auburn, many fans, including head coach Frost have began to believe that the team should’ve rightfully had a spot in the four-team College Playoffs. Seeing that Auburn beat Alabama and Georgia, the two teams playing in the national championship on Monday, and UCF beat Auburn, many fans are pointing out that Central Florida should really be considered the real national champions. The real reason they weren’t recognized for their clearly respectable talents was their schedule. They didn’t play a ranked opponent until the American Athletic Conference title game in November, where they played and beat then ranked No. 20 Memphis. Frost addressed the AAC ranking decisions after the win saying, “It wasn’t right. These guys deserve everything they get and they deserve more credit from the committee than they got,” Frost said of his players.
Looks like the committee will have to take this season into consideration for next year’s schedule, but for now all we can say is – GO UCF!