MagicFan101 wrote:EasternMagic wrote:Nemesis21 wrote:
Who? And sounds like you are going by this year alone.
How many Navy, Memphis, USF, and UCF games did you watch this year? That's the question I've asked three times.
Could lump in Houston and SMU in on a good day. For UCF, sure, I'll go by this year alone, but that's what we are talking about: UCF being validated on their wins from this year. Even so, throughout the short history of the American, the teams listed along with Houston and SMU have been at least mid-tier power 5 talent.
This year in particular, Memphis, USF, Navy, and UCF, from my perspective (and I watched a decent amount of ACC games), were certainly better than UNC, Duke, Virginia, Pitt, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and Boston College. And then UCF, USF, and Memphis were better than Virginia Tech, Louisville, and NC State. And that UCF was better than Miami and Clemson.
Out of all of those claims, the only one I feel like I may be reaching on is UCF being the better team than Clemson.
What about the Big 12? I don't think it's a far reach by any standard stating that UCF, USF, and Memphis could play with/beat Texas, West Virginia, Kansas State, Iowa State (Memphis lost by 1 point, and had a TD called back because of a stupid penalty), Texas Tech (USF did beat them), Baylor, or Kansas. I think UCF could beat TCU, Oklahoma State for sure. And I think they'd have a pretty decent shot against Oklahoma. (Again, out of all these claims, the furthest reach here is UCF vs Oklahoma, even though I think it's possible).
What about the Pac 12? UCF, USF, and Memphis got Colorado, Utah, UCLA (Memphis did beat them), Arizona, ASU, Oregon State, Cal, and Oregon for sure. And I don't exactly hate their chances against Washington State, Washington, Stanford, and USC. I think UCF could 100% beat those three.
I'd say I watched at least one game of 87% of the teams mentioned, some more than one game, and I really don't feel like it's a stretch to make the claim I have made. I'm not going to claim that our entire conference is better than an entire power 5 conference by any means right now, but the top three teams in our conference and even Navy on some standards are better than A LOT of these teams listed. The point being, our two wins against Memphis, our win against USF, and our win against Navy (the one that snapped the longest home field winning streak in the nation) should be viewed as significant wins.
Here's an important note to add on, as I'm sure you will disagree with my post here: I really did not believe any of this for myself until about 7 games into the season, after watching these American teams keep winning and playing good football (not just good AAC football; good football) and watching these power five teams play either a very similar or subpar brand. Will it last? The odds are not in our favor. When a POS team like Kansas can receive $35 million/year compared to UCF/USF/Memphis' $3 mil.
The structure is flawed, obviously, so when we have a year like this, not just UCF but Memphis and USF, we have to double down on the success.
On any given Saturday, yes, anyone can beat anyone. But do it every single week. One game isn’t the challenge, that is.
Not one thing UCF, Memphis or USF did this year gave me any reason to believe they have a shot at any fewer than 3 loses with such a schedule.
The best of the best this year couldn’t escape without one loss. So there is one for you. The way UCF plays just asks for trouble. They did a great job of avoiding the big mistakes this year but they did have them... a lot. With a tougher schedule those will happen more and better teams will punish you more. At least two loses will come from sloppy games. That is why the boring, ground and pound SEC always wins.
I mean, I obviously disagree with some of your points here, but I'm not going to re-write that whole post. Agree to disagree.
