UCF Claiming National Title
Their Twitter cover photo, their pinned tweet, even their handle: https://twitter.com/UCF_Football
Uncertain if this is due to how badly UCF outhit their opponents in relation to Bama or Georgia.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Never change, Scott.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Scott Frost mother must be behind this, just like their claim of the 97 NC at Nebraska
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:22 PM ^
No, she got them "If you were more physical, you won" T-shirts!
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:43 PM ^
I take it all back. I love this move by Frost. Finebaum was just on ESPN and is literally OUTRAGED. This move by Frost has "CHEAPENED" the "REAL" National Title Game. Which just so happens to include two SEC team...
KEEP IT UP, SCOTT!
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:09 PM ^
You know, I saw his reaction, and my first thought was, "Hey, Paul....you have a few teams in your conference who have done this same thing, sometimes YEARS after the fact, so you folks might want to sit this one out...."
January 3rd, 2018 at 5:58 PM ^
Wish there was something decent to watch in that time slot like curling.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:24 PM ^
Hell, this is more legit than Frost's claim to a share of '97 NC!
THAT team lost to Mizzou!
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Got a "like" from Scott Frost's mom.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:50 PM ^
That's it? I got a Blumpkin!
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
I'll bet...
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:43 PM ^
Like what you did there...
January 4th, 2018 at 1:43 AM ^
Michelle Trachtenberg: sneaky hot
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
and I claim the North Pole!
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
I reject your claim. I've been there, not you. I own that shit spot!
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
wanna wrestle for it?
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:57 PM ^
No! I'll post a pic if needed, but I'll not wrestle. I get enough of that with my 6 yr old, and he beats the crap out of me...
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:59 PM ^
I promise to wear a shirt
January 3rd, 2018 at 10:35 PM ^
think your promise was a deal breaker.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
Maybe that'll work out better than the whole East Berlin thing.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:45 PM ^
Why not claim it? They're 13-0 with a win over Auburn. And don't tell me Auburn wasn't there to win!
Now, I don't think for a minute that UCF would win a playoff. But they earned a shot and would have a second game if 6 or 8 teams were in...
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:48 PM ^
You know Auburn beat Bama and Georgia right?
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
At Jordan-Hare Stadium.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^
or B1G and see if they go undefeated.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
bet Georgia and Alabama couldn't do that either.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^
I do know that. I also know that UCF only has so many games like that in them. The Boise St beat OK, I don't think they would have won a second game of that magnitude. Great team, just not great enough to win something like that without a little surprise...
January 3rd, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
claim if we just do that.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:03 PM ^
Ah...the eight game playoff. One of my concerns is how the eight and seven seed would fare in a typical year against the one and two seeds. Blowouts are only fun when they happen against OSU and MSU. And then there is scheduling two more games at an NFL peak time.
January 3rd, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
I agree this system needs to change. Love that they do claim it, love they because Auburn beat both Georgia and Alabama they have a theoretical logical reason to do so.
January 3rd, 2018 at 7:46 PM ^
vs FIU W61-17
vs MEM CANC
vs GT CANC
@ MD W38-10
vs MAINE CANC
vs MEM W40-13
@ CIN W51-23
vs ECU W63-21
@ NAVY W31-21
vs PEAY W73-33
@ SMU W31-24
vs CONN W49-24
@ TEM W45-19
vs USF W49-42
vs 20 MEM W62-55
vs 7 AUB W34-27
Also consider that Michigan played both Maryland and Cin as well as UCF did, and while those are the only two teams they played in common, they were some of the better teams UCF played (excluding Memphis and AUB and possibly USF). Instead of back to back USF vs Memphis, Michigan is playing back to back top 10 teams. And nobody in their right mind is going to say Michigan was a 2017 national champion contender. It's all schedule.
January 3rd, 2018 at 8:29 PM ^
I'll make this easy: take that same schedule and same win margin etc... and replace UCF with an Independent school like Notre Dame. If that's who they scheduled, would people be saying they deserved to be in the playoff? Not a chance. That's how it works when your conference is garbage. The G5 teams really should just have their own playoff.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:48 PM ^
It's fun to mock but this is the only way the G5 teams will have a chance. They need the playoffs to expand to 8 with automatic qualifiers to get a seat at the table.
January 3rd, 2018 at 1:59 PM ^
And it's a pretty easy sell too.
P5 Champions get auto bids
Highest-ranked G5 team gets in.
2 At-Large Bids.
Play the quarters on campus and then proceed as usual.
So, this year would've been
#8 UCF (G5) at #1 Clemson (ACC Champ)
#5 Ohio State (B1G Champ) at #4 Alabama (At-Large)
#7 USC (Pac-12 Champ) at #2 Oklahoma (Big XII Champ)
#6 Wisconsin (At-Large) at #3 Georgia (SEC Champ)
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:13 PM ^
That's where I'm at with it as well. I would LOVE a playoff game in December at Michigan Stadium. Unfortunately money probably wins out and the non-playoff NY6 bowl games find a way to block this plan.
EDIT: It also preserves the sanctity of the regular season we all love so much. It would be a huge advantage to play at home so no need to worry about a team mailing it in at the end of the year just to get in.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:08 PM ^
I don't think you need to guarantee a G5 team a spot, but if they are undefeated, they probably make it in as an at large.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^
UCF was ranked #12 in the final CFP Committee Poll. If the playoff was 8 teams and there were no auto bids they were not getting in.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:10 PM ^
That was really by design, as there was no way that they were putting them close to the top 4 at any point, to avoid the pressure at the end. If there were 8 spots, you can be damn sure that they would have been #8.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
I don't know if I agree with that. The Committee went out of their way to blast UCF's schedule. I think that would have continued and they would have put 4 P5 teams in the playoff without a qualifier. I expect UCF to get more love in the final poll after beating Auburn but that data point didn't exist when the playoff field would have been selected.
January 3rd, 2018 at 7:03 PM ^
When my #21 ranked WMU Broncos kept getting leapt over despite teams ahead and around them losing. And #19 Boise st managed to stay ahead of Western into week 13 at 10-1 and Western was 11-0. If not for a loss to Air Force in that last game Boise St would’ve gone to the Cotton Bowl. The committee chose to take the side of a program that had previous years of success, which should have no bearing on the current years bowl selection process but it shows the extent of the political process as if filters down through the G5. So no, Western would not have made it in as a 12-0 had Boise St gone 11-1. And i would bet that neither would be chosen for an 8th seed. Western took care of a middle tier B1G at Evanston in the opener and destroyed an bottom tier Illini team in their house.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:13 PM ^
I don't like auto-bids for conference champions. Some years a 3- or even 4-loss team has pulled the upset in the conference title game. That doesn't make them national-title worthy in my eyes.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:29 PM ^
What about when a 3 or 4 seed wins March Madness?
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:35 PM ^
Basketball de-emphasized the regular season ages ago by going to the giant tournament. I don't want football to do the same.
Also, there are about 350 D-I basketball programs, so to be #10 in the country in basketball is a little different than in football.
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:54 PM ^
All Michigan has ever cared about is winning the B1G. Doing so under an Auto-bid playoff makes winning the B1G (regular season) even more meaningful.
50% of the life of the College Football Playoff, the B1G Champ hasn't had a chance to win a National Title. And that is horseshit when on the field results mean everything, and interconference football is completed 2 months before the end of the season.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:19 PM ^
Well the conference championship depends on how you perform in the regular season, so by de-emphasizing the conference championship, you are de-emphasizing the regular season. Hypocrite...
January 3rd, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
All 5 power conferences get 2 teams (conference championships) into the playoff. Two additional at-large teams (undefeated Group of 5 teams get placed first, then highest rated non-conference champ from college football playoff gets in.)
You get a 12 team playoff, and that 3/4 loss division champ surely has done enough to be apart of a 12 team playoff. 6 winners, top two seeds (from final poll) awarded byes, 3rd highest plays winner of play in game between at-larges, 4th and 5th play). 1 gets lowest seed, 2 gets other winner. Winners meet in National Title Game.
That is how it currently is, basically, except 1 or 2 power conferences don't even get a chance to move on after winning conference, and G5 is completely screwed, and college football fans get less meaningful football.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:09 PM ^
G5 teams, then you're giving them a strong incentive to make very weak non-conference schedules.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^
And they will be rightfully pounded in the first round of the playoffs. Or they won't! Better to find out on the field than the comments section on MGoBlog.
January 3rd, 2018 at 3:27 PM ^
But that is not the point. In certain scenarios, they would be taking another teams chance because one team chose cupcakes and another team chose real opponents.