To the disappoint of some fans and media members, No. 10 Florida’s bowl draw is No. 7 Michigan instead of a Sunshine State showdown with No. 8 UCF. UF athletic director Scott Stricklin, a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee, tweeted that a UF-UCF “would have been fun,” though some continued to accuse him of politicking out of a Gators-Knights bowl game in fear of Central Florida pulling off another upset similar to last year’s Auburn-UCF game. Stricklin pointed out that he has to leave the room whenever Florida is discussed.

But with the almost Florida-UCF pairing a hot topic in the media, it’s not surprising to see it came up in Gators coach Dan Mullen’s Peach Bowl teleconference Monday morning. Mullen said his stance is that UF would be happy to play anybody, including Alabama, if it’s in a New Year’s Six bowl.

Here’s the transcript of two questions on potentially playing UCF:

Q. Dan, could you talk a little bit about this match-up from the standpoint of comparing what it would have been like if you had been matched up against UCF? There are some fans that certainly wanted to play UCF, and there are others that feel like they would rather play a Power Five school because there’s more — the perception is there’s more to be gained from that. Could you talk about the difference? Would you have liked to have had the opportunity to have played UCF?
DAN MULLEN: You know what, I’m just thrilled for the opportunity to be in a New Year’s Six bowl. Whoever our opponent is, our focus is going to be to come out there and play with relentless effort in everything that we do. I think the opportunity to — if you’re going to a New Year’s Six bowl, you’re playing a high-caliber team, no matter who that is or what conference they come from, and that’s the great challenge, and that’s what’s so fun about it as a competitor. You love playing whoever is going to come. I didn’t really mind — as long as we’re playing in a New Year’s Six bowl, I don’t mind who the opponent is going to be. We’re going to be excited to come out there and try to play as hard as we can.

Q. So is that a yes or a no?
DAN MULLEN: Of what? I don’t — I don’t care who we’re playing. I didn’t really care. I’ll be honest with you. Yeah. I mean, I’m just excited to be at a New Year’s Six bowl and have the opportunity to play a great team. If they rolled out anybody, we would go ready to play. I don’t care who it was; they could roll out Notre Dame, Clemson, Oklahoma, Alabama; we’re going to show up ready to go play, and I’m — whoever came, Texas, whoever else in the New Year’s Six bowls this year, we would have had willing to play all of them. I probably wouldn’t have wanted to play Georgia or LSU because we’ve already played both of those two. Anybody else I would have been excited to play.

Florida vs. Michigan is set for Dec. 29 with a noon ET kickoff.