UCF is college football’s only undefeated team at 13-0. The Knights beat Auburn in a fun Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day, and now the party line from UCF is that they are also national champions along with whoever wins the Playoff.
UCF declares itself national champions, and is doing everything real champions do after winning
You go undefeated and you can do what you want.
Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
They’re treating the occasion with appropriate celebration.
Champions get parades, so that’s exactly what UCF is throwing its Knights.
“We’re gonna have a parade to celebrate the success of our team,” AD Danny White said during an ESPN Radio interview on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
That parade’s going down at the most magical place on earth.
UCF is also planning on hanging a dang national title banner from its home stadium in Orlando, too.
This all started after the Peach Bowl. White was seen on the field proclaiming that his team was also national champions.
And on social media, they aren’t just the UCF Knights anymore.
Even Wikipedia agrees with the Knights!
Why is UCF doing all this?
Well, because they can.
“We’ve got a really mature group of young men who played 13 games and won them all. I think they deserve to be considered national champions,” White said. “We’re really proud of them.
“Hopefully, in the coming days, a lot more people will become believers as well. We feel like we’re deserving of a national championship. By our research, there’s been 36 different years where there have been multiple champions crowned in college football. There’s been years where there were three or four champions crowned. ... There’s going to be a CFP champion, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not a national champion.”
A split national championship is in no way rare in the broader history of college football, but it’s something that’s only happened once since the BCS was formed: When USC and LSU split the national title in 2003 when the Trojans were the AP’s No. 1 and the Tigers were the Coaches poll No. 1. The difference with UCF’s case is that UCF is the major entity claiming that the Knights are national champs.
Even if the BCS was still around, the Knights would not have made the national title game.
But there is nothing wrong with commemorating an undefeated season. In case you’re unaware, those are pretty hard to pull off. So just like Ohio State did a few years ago, the Knights will claim a championship whether you think it’s mythical or not.
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