Florida AD quashes rumors about Gators refusing to play UCF at Knights' stadium
Florida and UCF’s last meeting on the gridiron was back in 2006 when Chris Leak threw for 352 yards and 4 touchdowns as the Gators won in a laugher, 42-0.
Things have changed for the Knights since then as they have evolved into one of the premier Group of 5 programs in the country. Naturally, UCF fans want another crack at the Gators, with many feeling that Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin is hesitant to take a step toward a regular series between the 2 teams.
On Sunday, Stricklin went on the record on Twitter, stating that he had offered to play the Knights twice at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in return for one in Orlando at Spectrum Stadium, the Knights’ home field. That runs counter to a belief among UCF fans that the Gators would be willing to play UCF but at a neutral site of Camping World Stadium, the former Citrus Bowl, instead of Spectrum Stadium.
Actually, UF did offer a true 2-for-1. I never said anything about the 1 having to be a neutral … not sure where that came from. Sometimes schools’ scheduling priorities just don’t match up. We’ve both moved on … no hard feelings. Good luck to UCF this year and beyond.
— Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) September 27, 2020
In 2018, through a FOIA request, the Orlando Sentinel obtained emails between Stricklin and UCF athletic director Danny White, with White offering a home-and-home starting with the 2021 season, and Stricklin rejecting the offer but proposing a 2-for-1 beginning with the Gators’ 2022 home opener.
One of the sticking points for White was Stricklin’s refusal to schedule a home-and-home with “non-Autonomy 5 opponents,” a description that chafed the UCF AD.
But nothing has come of the discussions to this point, and for the foreseeable future, it looks at if the 2 programs are not planning on playing one another any time soon.
We don’t want any of that.
If we were to lose, people would laugh at us harder than they are at LSU.
UCF are no worse than FSU or Miami.
Wait until you guys play a Mike Leach coached team with this years equivalent of a Joe Burreaux.
JoeJort is a troll whose schtick is berating a team while pretending to be that schools fan. He’s also Bayou Beaux or something dumb like that. Ignore him.
Sorry bro but Kyle Trask is this year’s Burrow, not Costello and if we play MSU the result would be similar to the OleMiss game
UCF is just unreasonable in this situation. Strickland is right for offering when he didn’t have to. Let UCF keep playing these on the edge programs. UCF wants so bad to be a blue blood. They need another 25 years at least to start scheduling games at this level.
No, just need to have some conference $.
Maybe UCF should try and schedule games with teams closer to their caliber, like FSU or even Miami. Then they can come back in a few years and take that 2 for 1 we offered
Until then you will just have to take those big time non conference games like CSU. Ha! Ha!
All this is now coming out because ESPN is on record saying UCF is the best team in Florida right now.
Do you identify as a “No team” fan? Doesn’t that mean the same as staying in the closet?
ESPN’s own power poll has UF much higher than UCF. Maybe one guy that works for espn said it. That’s not exactly what you said.
LOL
That’s not even actually what ESPN said. If you want a good breakdown of it go watch “Best Team in State of Florida? (Late Kick Cut)” by 247Sports on Youtube. Josh does a great job breaking that all down.
But I forgot, making things up is what Central Florida does best
So does the PAC-12, and even Alabama. Both use Major Selectors for their National Championships claims, Alabama in the pre-BCS, but AP era, but the PAC-12 even in the BCS/CFP era.
Yes, Alabama has only 11 Consensus National Titles, but claims 17., Most of those 6 are worse claims than UCF, or the PAC-12’s 2008 claim for Utah.
At least Utah differentiates between 10 Consensus National Titles and the Major Selector Non-Consensus. Alabama does not.
You cannot make fun of UCF for its 2017 claim without dragging in the PAC-12 along with dozens more ‘Power’ programs with Non-Consensus titles, including Alabama.
And give UCF credit, the AP#1 in 2017 was not uninamous either. UCF got 4 total #1 votes. Utah 2009 was the ladt time that happened too.
Even if what you say were true, who gives a rats a$$,the best team will be shown on the field
Which is all UCF wants, a shot. That’s why it has a lot of support.
UCF used to be a team you could root for. I remember their great 2013 team led by Blake Bortles, but now their fanbase is truly obnoxious. Florida’s offense would eviscerate UCF’s porous defense. Sure, UCF would put up some points and some yardage, but Trask could probably throw for over 500 against UCF without breaking a sweat.
Interesting analogy, because how much did ESPN talk about UCF after it beat the #5/#6 Big XII Champion in a BCS Bowl after never trailing, and winning by virtually as much of the spread, only on the opposite direction (basically a 34 point swing in UCF’s favor)?
Nada! So that’s why 2017 was about making noise, especially since 99% of P5 fans out there side the Big XII don’t know UCF won a BCS bowl against a P5 Champion, exactly 4 years before Auburn. Same with UCF’s sheer bowl attendance numbers that make even even the Fiesta, Peach and Sugar executives smile. :)
And yes, UCF’s D is misdong a number of starters and has some issues right now. Although some D yards have been in garbage time. Regardless, how many yards would UCF’s offense put up on Florida? Because just because UCF is down a lot of starters on Defense doesn’t mean they wouldn’t lead the Big XII like Oklahoma did with its crappy defenses too.
KEY POINT: No UCF fan thinks they would go undefeated in the SEC, and many would believe they would have at least 2+ losses in a full schedule, and not make the CFP… But, in the same regard…
Do you think Clemson would, in the SEC, like the ACC?
Same for the Big XII or the awful PAC-12. The AAC has been destroying the PAC-12 for years, and their top teams have been downing the Big XII’s top teams.
And that’s UCF’s point…
We’re not saying we’re better than the best of the SEC. We’re saying we’re better than nearly all the rest of the ‘Power’ teams, we have been most of the past decade (sans ’15 and ’11), done far more than programs like Miami the last 17 years…
So if you’re going to schedule the worse PAC-12 the past decade (Colorado) 1-1, why not UCF?
I understand Strickland’s case, even if artificial. Schedule a single G5 in a 1-1, and the rest will come.
But in the sane regard, UCF — like Boise, Cincy, Houston, Memphis and SDSU — have the same, counter-argument. Schedule a single 2-1 (let alone 2-0-1) against a P5, and the rest will come.
It’s not an UCF-only thing. But at least Strickland recognizes Florida Citrus Sports (FCS, Florida Citrus Bowl) is a non-starter. I can appreciate that as an UCF fan.
Give UCF credit, I guess, for keeping their name in the media. But to the extent that they’re serious, they are all suffering from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Kinda like Teez?
Get real
You do know that jorts are really more of a back woods, deep South, Daisy Duke sort of thing, right?
As I mentioned last year. The first UF fan I saw the morning of the game was wearing jorts. She wore them well. No complaints.
Not when 99% of P5 fans are ignorant of the BCS bowl win and other, non-UCF G5 programs that refuse to schedule 2-1 with P5s for fiscal reasons too.
Boise, Cincy, Houston, Memphis and SDSU are right with and very supportive of UCF. As Bill Murray said it best, “The country needs UCF right now.” To ignore that, and complain about it, is to ignore the sheer non-P5 fanbase that is with UCF.
Or look at it this way…
Even P5 fan likes to say ‘SEC’ and ‘Alabama’ even though their non-SEC conference and teams aren’t remotely as food.
For G5 fans, that’s the AAC and UCF they use as their representatives too. And there are a lot.
So, kudos to Florida’s Strickland for ignorong Florida Citrus Sports (FCS). It was FCS that made the initial 2-0-1 ‘offer’ to both Florida and UCF (‘Neutral at Citrus Bowl’). FCS has been hemoragging taxpayer money since UCF pulled out in 2007 (the taxpayers rejected the stadium renovation without non-public dollars). And Strickland *did* actually change to discussing 2-1-0 with UCF’s White, even if no official offer was made, it was at least discussed.
Regardless of everything else, every UCF fans should thank Strickland for agreeing to not involve FCS, who is responsible for destroying so many potential UCF contracts over the last decade, most notably the 2-2-0 with Miami that was mutually agreed upon until FCS offered $3M+ to Miami to make it a 2-0-2 instead. Too many taxpayer funded entities keep interfering with privately funded UCFAA, Inc., who went that way by 2003 because too many ‘public servants’ were trying to cancel UCF Football like UAB.
So, even if UCF won’t take a 2-1-0 for fiscal reasons, as well as setting a precedent Boise, Cincy, Houston, Memphis, SDSU, the other, top 10% G5 revenue programs (which can get 10x the bottom half of the G5) don’t do either, this *is* a very positive development for UCF in the *long* term. It is another, major AD in-state who respects why FCS and UCF are ‘at war,’ and is willing to buck the politicians and ‘public servants.’
It also means that Strickland and Florida, maybe not now or in the next 3 years bit later on, will be willing to go a full 0-0-1 on a neutral site like in ATL or JAX, when the moment is right. Again, it truly means Strickland, unlike so many others, understands that FCS is a problem and should not be involved.
Until then, Florida doesn’t want to schedule a single G5, even if it schedules worse P5 with horrendous attendance (before COVID-19), in an 1-1, to avoid a precedent, and UCF won’t accept moving to a 2-1 setup as it not only doesn’t guarantee really any more P5 opponents, but costs UCF $3-5M/year, which is a lot when the AAC TV contract is not even $10M/year/team.
Again, this is actually a good consideration for UCF long-term, even if it doesn’t change the immediate result. FCS is UCFAA, Inc’s biggest issue right now, and was even partially involved with the city and state interfering with UCFAA, Inc.’s $35M stadium naming deal too.
That’s what UCF has done with Miami in the past, a 1-1-0.
UCF and Miami were finalizing a 2-2-0 in 2017 when Florida Citrus Sports intervened and offered Miami $3M more to make it a 2-0-2.
FSU refuses to schedule UCF at all. Even USF’s deal was from the Big East era when FSU scheduled Louisville as well.
Maybe you should come back when you’re not so ignorant of UCF Scheduling attempts.
Also, remember, until the last 2 years, it had been almost a decade since Florida won a BCS or NY6 bowl. In 2012, you lost to #22 Louisville, who everyone predicted, with al its returners, in 2013 was going to beat everyone, but lost to UCF.
Florida fans need to end their obsession with UCF. And if they cannot, at least end their ignorance when arguing against UCF.
I.e., UCF and AAC fans are not remotely as ignorant of Florida and the SEC, as Florida and SEC fans are of UCF abs AAC.
E.g., you can say you don’t care, and that is fine. But don’t make suggestions that just utterly expose your gross ignorance and make you look like an assuming fool.
I can understand why Florida wont agree to a home and home game, they would lose both matches.