#8 UCF [10-0] @ Tampa

[UCFJayBird]

The system is not a joke, at least outside of UCF's fanbase. (For the record, I would like to see an 8 team playoff)

Yes 21 wins in a row is awesome. But of those 21, only 3 are vs top 25 ranked opponents. Also, UCF is three years removed from an 0-12 season.

In the last 5 seasons (prior to this one) we've won two NY6 Bowl Games and 3 Conference Championships. Sure, there's a winless season in there, but thanks for ignoring everything else.

Strength in schedule matters. UCF has a top 10 easiest SOS in 2018(Outside of Power 5 teams). For comparison sake, FSU is top 3 most difficult SOS in 2018, of the Power 5.

SOS is important and matters. UCF's SOS is not better than the two loss teams, not better than mid teams in SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and possibly the ACC.

Period.

Remind me again how many Top 25 wins Alabama had going into the CFP selection last season? was it 3? Same as UCF? Ok, just making sure. What was there SOS? In the late 40s or 50s I think. How many losses did Alabama have and still make it in? Better yet, did they win their division, let alone their conference to earn that shot? Didn't think so.

Again, I thought the point of sports was to solve who was the best team on the field, not who plays the hardest schedules.

Yes UCF can flat out score. A top scoring team in the country. But your defense is terrible. Gave up 40 points to a not very good Temple offense. The Cincy and USF games will be interesting.

So it's ok for Oklahoma to get into a shoot out with Texas Tech, or barely squeak past Army, or for Notre Dame to barely beat Pitt, Vanderbilt, and Ball State, but UCF gets into a shoot out with Temple or has to come back @ Memphis and it's a testament to our weakness, while their wins are testaments to their resiliency and strengths? Sorry, not buying it.

Honestly you guys are ranked where you should be.

The bigger picture is get in a Power 5 and win like this.

Honestly, most UCF fans will admit we should be ranked probably 2-3 spots higher. I don't think very many realistic fans would argue we should be Top 8 right now. But we would argue that we deserve the chance to settle it on the field if we stay unbeaten. And THAT is the point. You can say UCF isn't as good as we claim it is all you want, and you may be right. But in the current playoff structure we'll never know for sure. Last year people said the exact same things about UCF, and we went out and beat Auburn (who themselves said they were motivated in that game).

The playoff is absolutely a joke. Imagine if in the NFL the Rams might be left out of the playoff because the NFC West was weaker than the other divisions and their SOS just wasn't good enough. Would that be a joke? Of course it would be. Same logic applies here. I get the financial reasons why the CFP wouldn't want to expand and why the bowl games wouldn't want it to, but from the aspect of the game itself, there's no valid argument against expanding it. None.

Actually they played 4(during regular season, 6 if post season included). Opening game vs #3 FSU, 11/4 vs #18 LSU, 11/11 vs #19 Miss St and 11/26 vs #6 Auburn(a loss), post season vs #1 Clemson and vs #3 Georgia. That's 4 teams in the top 6.


UCF - played 1 during regular season #22 USF. 3 if you include post season, vs #16 Memphis and #7 Auburn. That's 1 team in the top 5

4 wins vs top 6 vs 1 win vs top 6

So if you look at line A and B, you're telling me line B is stronger or looks better??? Seriously??

And actually Alabama had the 10th toughest schedule last year of Power 5 schools, not somewhere in the 40s like you thought.

I disagree with counting teams that wind up unranked at the end of the season, or excluding teams that aren't ranked early but are later just because the media was wrong on who would be good (unless there's extenuating circumstances).

FSU stunk last year. I refuse to acknolwedge that as a Top 25 win for Alabama. Same logic applies to the rest. Is Oklahoma counting FAU in their Top 25 wins this year too?

[MagicFan101]

The playoffs should be the winner of each conference championship plus two vote ins. There really isn’t a valid argument against that idea. I’m sorry 101, but you’re reaching hard to support your position. Football is physical? That’s why teams should be snubbed? Come on.

The system is a joke and unless situations like this end up in automatic bid for a “better” conference or a legitimate playoff, any other way is crap.

Missing the point is a common skill in these parts. Still, this right here might be a greater display of that than we have seen in some time.

You 100% said that football is violent and used it as a reason to limit the # of games and thus not expand the playoff. Maybe you meant it differently, but that's what you said.

This isn’t basketball where you can have a massive tournament.

Football is a violent sport which requires a limited schedule and time between games for recovery.

Therefore you have no choice at all but to draw arbitrary lines in the sand for determining who would make for the best competition in a small playoff bracket.

Yes. But this is a case of connecting A-to-Z and ignoring everything in between. Hence he is missing the point.

The root issue is that in a league of 130 teams it is impossible to avoid the arbitrary lines without a massive amount of games. You just can’t do that in a game where teams need a good amount of time to recover ... and also be STUDENTS!

Therefore the problem is that THERE IS NO SOLUTION as long as we remain such a large league. It is not that an evil empire is hating on UCF.

Therefore, it is very likely we could see the P5 system dissolve soon and a new league form. UCF should buy into the system we have while they can and accept offers to play the Oklahoma’s of the world rather than demand more than they are worth and blame everyone else.

You say you just want to see it determined on the field ... well, you have accept offers to PLAY THE GAME ON THE FIELD! lol. Common sense.

[UCFJayBird]

i'm not rehashing that argument lol

[Nemesis21]

In the last 5 seasons (prior to this one) we've won two NY6 Bowl Games and 3 Conference Championships. Sure, there's a winless season in there, but thanks for ignoring everything else.



Remind me again how many Top 25 wins Alabama had going into the CFP selection last season? was it 3? Same as UCF? Ok, just making sure. What was there SOS? In the late 40s or 50s I think. How many losses did Alabama have and still make it in? Better yet, did they win their division, let alone their conference to earn that shot? Didn't think so.

Again, I thought the point of sports was to solve who was the best team on the field, not who plays the hardest schedules.



So it's ok for Oklahoma to get into a shoot out with Texas Tech, or barely squeak past Army, or for Notre Dame to barely beat Pitt, Vanderbilt, and Ball State, but UCF gets into a shoot out with Temple or has to come back @ Memphis and it's a testament to our weakness, while their wins are testaments to their resiliency and strengths? Sorry, not buying it.



Honestly, most UCF fans will admit we should be ranked probably 2-3 spots higher. I don't think very many realistic fans would argue we should be Top 8 right now. But we would argue that we deserve the chance to settle it on the field if we stay unbeaten. And THAT is the point. You can say UCF isn't as good as we claim it is all you want, and you may be right. But in the current playoff structure we'll never know for sure. Last year people said the exact same things about UCF, and we went out and beat Auburn (who themselves said they were motivated in that game).

The playoff is absolutely a joke. Imagine if in the NFL the Rams might be left out of the playoff because the NFC West was weaker than the other divisions and their SOS just wasn't good enough. Would that be a joke? Of course it would be. Same logic applies here. I get the financial reasons why the CFP wouldn't want to expand and why the bowl games wouldn't want it to, but from the aspect of the game itself, there's no valid argument against expanding it. None.

Actually they played 4(during regular season, 6 if post season included). Opening game vs #3 FSU, 11/4 vs #18 LSU, 11/11 vs #19 Miss St and 11/26 vs #6 Auburn(a loss), post season vs #1 Clemson and vs #3 Georgia. That's 4 teams in the top 6.


UCF - played 1 during regular season #22 USF. 3 if you include post season, vs #16 Memphis and #7 Auburn. That's 1 team in the top 5

4 wins vs top 6 vs 1 win vs top 6

So if you look at line A and B, you're telling me line B is stronger or looks better??? Seriously??

And actually Alabama had the 10th toughest schedule last year of Power 5 schools, not somewhere in the 40s like you thought.

I disagree with counting teams that wind up unranked at the end of the season, or excluding teams that aren't ranked early but are later just because the media was wrong on who would be good (unless there's extenuating circumstances).

FSU stunk last year. I refuse to acknolwedge that as a Top 25 win for Alabama. Same logic applies to the rest. Is Oklahoma counting FAU in their Top 25 wins this year too?

That's your opinion and not everyone will agree. And no, that's not going by just end of season rankings. In season Alabama played 3-4 teams ranked in top 25, UCF 1. That's facts no matter how you want to look at it.

With that FSU logic you just said, that's going by end of season. Yeah FSU was not top 25 last year. But in 2016 and going into that Alabama game, they most certainly were a top 25 team.

[EAS Law]

The playoffs should be the winner of each conference championship plus two vote ins. There really isn’t a valid argument against that idea. I’m sorry 101, but you’re reaching hard to support your position. Football is physical? That’s why teams should be snubbed? Come on.

The system is a joke and unless situations like this end up in automatic bid for a “better” conference or a legitimate playoff, any other way is crap.

Missing the point is a common skill in these parts. Still, this right here might be a greater display of that than we have seen in some time.

In the interest of keeping the discussion civil, I assert that your point is fluid and any time someone addresses your points, you tweak them slightly and claim that everyone else is too dense to understand.

The overarching point you’re making all the time is that in your opinion, UCF does not deserve recognition because of their opponents. I’d have to agree with Jay that while SOS is important, wins and losses should invariably weigh more. Having teams with TWO losses ranked within the top ten and above undefeated programs is a disgrace.

The argument isn’t about crowing UCF champions, the argument is about arbitrarily denying them the chance to prove what they are or are not.

You’ve said yourself that it comes down to politics and money. That would be the best support for why this system is BS and subjective rather than a “tough luck” “we have to draw the line somewhere” situation. There are 8 teams ranked higher than undefeated UCF including KY, who has never been any good at football, has two losses, but happens to play in a conference that also features Bama. I’d say that by any objective measure, you draw the line somewhere north of 12 with 8 teams in between an unbeaten school.

[Nemesis21]

Let me ask all of you, UCF fans and non UCF fans, anyone participating in this thread,

FSU's schedule in 2018 is top 3 toughest(coming into the season). This isn't to say FSU is better than UCF. They aren't, at least as far as '17 and '18 are concerned. UCF is the better of the two teams, no question.

I'm just doing this for comparison sake and to see the answers.


Virginia Tech
Samford
Syracuse
N Illinois
Louisville
Miami
Wake Forest
Clemson
NC State
Notre Dame
Boston College
Florida

Now let's forget about those teams above rankings for a minute and the SOS of the above schedule. Let's also forget how the above teams records stand today. Answer the question below, as if the season hasn't started yet.


Just looking at those 12 schools, does anyone see UCF winning more than 6 of those?


Me,

Virginia Tech - L
Samford - W
Syracuse - W
N Illinois - W
Louisville - W
Miami - L
Wake Forest - W
Clemson - L
NC State - W
Notre Dame - L
Boston College - L
Florida - L


I have it 6-6


Now that's not to say my opinion is right or wrong. It could be either. I'm just curious of all the answers we will see.

[MagicFan101]

The overarching point you’re making all the time is that in your opinion, UCF does not deserve recognition because of their opponents.

Ahh! There you have it. This is 100% NOT the point I am making. My point is that UCF chooses to avoid big time matchups for the sake of short term financial gains and then blames the system when they are left out of the conversation. Like the system or not, you know what it is and if you chose not to play then you can’t blame anyone but yourself. I understand that a neutral site or home + away series is more desirable but you have to walk before you can run and UCF isn’t in a position to command such an event for marquee programs with teams lining up to get on their schedule.

As a UCF alumni and fan I am upset by this and embarrassed by the fools pointing fingers anywhere other than the UCF program itself.

I’d have to agree with Jay that while SOS is important, wins and losses should invariably weigh more. Having teams with TWO losses ranked within the top ten and above undefeated programs is a disgrace.

This is an opinion and you’re free to it. However, this thinking is a slippery slope to “all wins are created equal” which just isn’t true. With 130 teams playing so few games you don’t have enough combinations of matchups to formulate a definitive ranking. Arbitrary lines are a given unless we cut the league to 30 teams and the likes of UCF are out of the conversation entirely.

[Knightro]

I think with regular luck, UCF wins 8 times this year with Florida State's schedule.

With good luck, I think they could win 10 times. They'd be significant underdogs against Clemson and Notre Dame, but favorites or just slight underdogs against everybody else.

But the key thing to remember here is that UCF is doing all this with a budget that's a fraction of the size of FSU's. FSU had $144.5M in revenue last year compared to just $56.3M for UCF.

If you tripled the amount of money UCF had to spend and they could use that money on recruiting, on better coaches, on facility upgrades, on improved fan experiences, they'd be one of the best teams in all of college football in my opinion.

UCF would win the ACC Coastal and be very competitive in the ACC Atlantic with the team they've been able to build on a shoestring budget. Give them the massive ACC, Big 12, SEC budget and they'd be a year in, year out contender.

[Nemesis21]

8-10 wins? Interesting.

[Nemesis21]

I think with regular luck, UCF wins 8 times this year with Florida State's schedule.

With good luck, I think they could win 10 times. They'd be significant underdogs against Clemson and Notre Dame, but favorites or just slight underdogs against everybody else.

But the key thing to remember here is that UCF is doing all this with a budget that's a fraction of the size of FSU's. FSU had $144.5M in revenue last year compared to just $56.3M for UCF.

If you tripled the amount of money UCF had to spend and they could use that money on recruiting, on better coaches, on facility upgrades, on improved fan experiences, they'd be one of the best teams in all of college football in my opinion.

UCF would win the ACC Coastal and be very competitive in the ACC Atlantic with the team they've been able to build on a shoestring budget. Give them the massive ACC, Big 12, SEC budget and they'd be a year in, year out contender.

Who's fault is that? Student population wise, isn't UCF a top 5 school in the country? So isn't it there own fault that they have a $56 M budget?


At the end of the day, no matter what direction fingers are pointed, UCF has to get into a Power 5. Period. Do it. Don't blame anyone for not being in a Power 5. Just do it.

[nymets1]

Oh lets not forget that FSU almost lost to SAMFORD. Even if FSU is in a down year, almost losing to SAMFORD is UNACCEPTABLE. FSU should blow out that team even in a down year, but got very lucky survived against Samford.

[UCFJayBird]

Let me ask all of you, UCF fans and non UCF fans, anyone participating in this thread,

FSU's schedule in 2018 is top 3 toughest(coming into the season). This isn't to say FSU is better than UCF. They aren't, at least as far as '17 and '18 are concerned. UCF is the better of the two teams, no question.

I'm just doing this for comparison sake and to see the answers.


Virginia Tech
Samford
Syracuse
N Illinois
Louisville
Miami
Wake Forest
Clemson
NC State
Notre Dame
Boston College
Florida

Now let's forget about those teams above rankings for a minute and the SOS of the above schedule. Let's also forget how the above teams records stand today. Answer the question below, as if the season hasn't started yet.


Just looking at those 12 schools, does anyone see UCF winning more than 6 of those?


Me,

Virginia Tech - W
Samford - W
Syracuse - W
N Illinois - W
Louisville - W
Miami - W
Wake Forest - W
Clemson - L
NC State - W
Notre Dame - L
Boston College - L
Florida - L


I have it 6-6


Now that's not to say my opinion is right or wrong. It could be either. I'm just curious of all the answers we will see.

I don't see a single game on that schedule that I think the Knights couldn't win or wouldn't at least be competitive in. I think it's interesting you have us losing to a 4-4 VT, and a 5-4 Miami, while beating 7-2 Syracuse and 6-2 NC State. I think we would beat all 4 of them, which following the schedule would put us 8-1 with our 1 loss being Clemson (i'll assume we lose that one, even though I think we could beat them) heading into the final 3 weeks, which would probably put us right around #8 in the rankings. I also think we could beat those last 3 teams as well.

Now i'm not saying we would, i'm saying we could. So I think 11-1 is possible, which would put us in the CFP discussion (if we won the CCG). Now odds dictate we stumble somewhere else too, of course. It's why going 11-1 is so dang difficult every year, and it's why going undefeated is such an accomplishment, because teams have off weeks. So I could easily see us going 8-4 with that schedule. I really don't see us doing much worse than that though. Obviously i've got black and gold glasses on, but since you asked, that's my .02.

Maybe in most seasons we go 8-4. But maybe this year was the year we'd go 11-1.

[UCFJayBird]

I think with regular luck, UCF wins 8 times this year with Florida State's schedule.

With good luck, I think they could win 10 times. They'd be significant underdogs against Clemson and Notre Dame, but favorites or just slight underdogs against everybody else.

But the key thing to remember here is that UCF is doing all this with a budget that's a fraction of the size of FSU's. FSU had $144.5M in revenue last year compared to just $56.3M for UCF.

If you tripled the amount of money UCF had to spend and they could use that money on recruiting, on better coaches, on facility upgrades, on improved fan experiences, they'd be one of the best teams in all of college football in my opinion.

UCF would win the ACC Coastal and be very competitive in the ACC Atlantic with the team they've been able to build on a shoestring budget. Give them the massive ACC, Big 12, SEC budget and they'd be a year in, year out contender.

Who's fault is that? Student population wise, isn't UCF a top 5 school in the country? So isn't it there own fault that they have a $56 M budget?


At the end of the day, no matter what direction fingers are pointed, UCF has to get into a Power 5. Period. Do it. Don't blame anyone for not being in a Power 5. Just do it.

That's really disingenuous. You know full well you can't just jump into a P5 conference. UCF fought there way into the P6, and the next season it went to P5, lol.

Also TV deals are so much bigger for the P5 that that is why their budgets are so much larger. That's not UCFs fault. That's just a product of being a younger university who wasn't around when football started.

[Knightro]

Who's fault is that? Student population wise, isn't UCF a top 5 school in the country? So isn't it there own fault that they have a $56 M budget?

At the end of the day, no matter what direction fingers are pointed, UCF has to get into a Power 5. Period. Do it. Don't blame anyone for not being in a Power 5. Just do it.

Student population has almost nothing to do with it. TV contracts are the biggest factor obviously.

The American Athletic Conference's TV contract only pays a little over $20 million to 12 schools. It's less than 2M per school.

The ACC's TV contract pays around 30M per school.

So right off the bat - without selling a single ticket, a single beer, a single piece of merchandise, without drawing one television rating point, without taking a single snap on the field - every team in the ACC has basically a 30M head start in revenue over every team in the American.

More cash to spend means football programs can pour money into their facilities, recruiting and coaching. Better facilities, better recruiting and better coaches mean better products on the field. Better products on the field means more fans in the stands. More fans in the stands mean more fans willing to spend even more money expensive premium seating.

Doak Campbell Stadium holds 79,500. Spectrum Stadium holds about 45,000. Those extra 35K seats are bringing in about double the amount in price as UCF's tickets.

Conservatively, we'll say UCF is bringing in about $1M in revenue per game in ticket sales. FSU with their bigger stadium capacity, more premium seating and more expensive ticket prices (which they are all able to do with their longer standing as a traditional college football power) as a whole is bringing 2-3 times more than UCF on ticket revenue. Factor that out over 7 home games and you're talking another 7-15M in extra revenue on tickets.

Then there's boosters. Florida State has been playing football since the 1940s and at a high level since the 1960s. They have literal generations (plural) of people who grew up watching, playing for, and are willing to donate money to their football program. UCF didn't even exist until the 60s and didn't start playing D-1 football in a conference until 2002.

FSU gets 25M a year worth of in donations from boosters in their sleep. UCF has to celebrate when they get a $1M dollar donation.

The two programs are nowhere close to the same playing field financially. If you gave UCF the same resources as FSU, I think they'd be an even better program frankly.

As far as "UCF has to get into a Power 5. Period. Do it. Don't blame anyone for not being in a Power 5. Just do it." -- UCF would take an invitation to ANY Power 5 conference today. If they could wave a wand and do it, they'd do it. There's no openings right now and probably aren't going to be any for several for years.

[Nemesis21]

Who's fault is that? Student population wise, isn't UCF a top 5 school in the country? So isn't it there own fault that they have a $56 M budget?

At the end of the day, no matter what direction fingers are pointed, UCF has to get into a Power 5. Period. Do it. Don't blame anyone for not being in a Power 5. Just do it.

Student population has almost nothing to do with it. TV contracts are the biggest factor obviously.

The American Athletic Conference's TV contract only pays a little over $20 million to 12 schools. It's less than 2M per school.

The ACC's TV contract pays around 30M per school.

So right off the bat - without selling a single ticket, a single beer, a single piece of merchandise, without drawing one television rating point, without taking a single snap on the field - every team in the ACC has basically a 30M head start in revenue over every team in the American.

More cash to spend means football programs can pour money into their facilities, recruiting and coaching. Better facilities, better recruiting and better coaches mean better products on the field. Better products on the field means more fans in the stands. More fans in the stands mean more fans willing to spend even more money expensive premium seating.

Doak Campbell Stadium holds 79,500. Spectrum Stadium holds about 45,000. Those extra 35K seats are bringing in about double the amount in price as UCF's tickets.

Conservatively, we'll say UCF is bringing in about $1M in revenue per game in ticket sales. FSU with their bigger stadium capacity, more premium seating and more expensive ticket prices (which they are all able to do with their longer standing as a traditional college football power) as a whole is bringing 2-3 times more than UCF on ticket revenue. Factor that out over 7 home games and you're talking another 7-15M in extra revenue on tickets.

Then there's boosters. Florida State has been playing football since the 1940s and at a high level since the 1960s. They have literal generations (plural) of people who grew up watching, playing for, and are willing to donate money to their football program. UCF didn't even exist until the 60s and didn't start playing D-1 football in a conference until 2002.

FSU gets 25M a year worth of in donations from boosters in their sleep. UCF has to celebrate when they get a $1M dollar donation.

The two programs are nowhere close to the same playing field financially. If you gave UCF the same resources as FSU, I think they'd be an even better program frankly.

As far as "UCF has to get into a Power 5. Period. Do it. Don't blame anyone for not being in a Power 5. Just do it." -- UCF would take an invitation to ANY Power 5 conference today. If they could wave a wand and do it, they'd do it. There's no openings right now and probably aren't going to be any for several for years.

We also didn't start out in a big conference. Started in the Dixie Conference, then was and Independent for 40 years.

So how do you think we go into a bigger conference and how did we get to play bigger schools? Bobby Bowden would play anybody, anywhere that's how. He and FSU scheduled tougher opponents, scheduled tougher out of conference opponents went on the road and played anybody.

Playing bigger schools while still an independent, getting invited into the ACC, those things weren't just handed to FSU. They were earned!

And that's what UCF needs to do.

[Knightro]

8-10 wins? Interesting.

I hate using the transitive property, but I'll do it anyway.

UCF beat Pittsburgh by 31.

Pitt has defeated Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia and Duke.

Duke has defeated Miami.

Georgia Tech has defeated Virginia Tech.

Syracuse has defeated Florida State and N.C. State and Wake Forest.

Virginia has defeated North Carolina and Louisville.

So by transitive property, which again is hardly fail proof, you could make the case that UCF on a shoe string budget is better than 12 of the 14 ACC teams on a massive P5 budget.

How much wider would that gap get if UCF had the same money to play with?

[Nemesis21]

Let me ask all of you, UCF fans and non UCF fans, anyone participating in this thread,

FSU's schedule in 2018 is top 3 toughest(coming into the season). This isn't to say FSU is better than UCF. They aren't, at least as far as '17 and '18 are concerned. UCF is the better of the two teams, no question.

I'm just doing this for comparison sake and to see the answers.


Virginia Tech
Samford
Syracuse
N Illinois
Louisville
Miami
Wake Forest
Clemson
NC State
Notre Dame
Boston College
Florida

Now let's forget about those teams above rankings for a minute and the SOS of the above schedule. Let's also forget how the above teams records stand today. Answer the question below, as if the season hasn't started yet.


Just looking at those 12 schools, does anyone see UCF winning more than 6 of those?


Me,

Virginia Tech - W
Samford - W
Syracuse - W
N Illinois - W
Louisville - W
Miami - W
Wake Forest - W
Clemson - L
NC State - W
Notre Dame - L
Boston College - L
Florida - L


I have it 6-6


Now that's not to say my opinion is right or wrong. It could be either. I'm just curious of all the answers we will see.

I don't see a single game on that schedule that I think the Knights couldn't win or wouldn't at least be competitive in. I think it's interesting you have us losing to a 4-4 VT, and a 5-4 Miami, while beating 7-2 Syracuse and 6-2 NC State. I think we would beat all 4 of them, which following the schedule would put us 8-1 with our 1 loss being Clemson (i'll assume we lose that one, even though I think we could beat them) heading into the final 3 weeks, which would probably put us right around #8 in the rankings. I also think we could beat those last 3 teams as well.

Now i'm not saying we would, i'm saying we could. So I think 11-1 is possible, which would put us in the CFP discussion (if we won the CCG). Now odds dictate we stumble somewhere else too, of course. It's why going 11-1 is so dang difficult every year, and it's why going undefeated is such an accomplishment, because teams have off weeks. So I could easily see us going 8-4 with that schedule. I really don't see us doing much worse than that though. Obviously i've got black and gold glasses on, but since you asked, that's my .02.

Maybe in most seasons we go 8-4. But maybe this year was the year we'd go 11-1.

Clearly you didn't read, I said answer the question as if the season had not started. So we don't know if VT is 4-4, UM 5-4 etc etc

Answer in the thinking the season hasn't started yet and you are just now looking at that schedule.


Absolutely no way at all they go 11-1

[Nemesis21]

8-10 wins? Interesting.

I hate using the transitive property, but I'll do it anyway.

UCF beat Pittsburgh by 31.

Pitt has defeated Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia and Duke.

Duke has defeated Miami.

Georgia Tech has defeated Virginia Tech.

Syracuse has defeated Florida State and N.C. State and Wake Forest.

Virginia has defeated North Carolina and Louisville.

So by transitive property, which again is hardly fail proof, you could make the case that UCF on a shoe string budget is better than 12 of the 14 ACC teams on a massive P5 budget.

How much wider would that gap get if UCF had the same money to play with?

I wasn't discrediting your answer. Just stating it's interesting. I wanted to see peoples opinions, before debating.

[Knightro]

We also didn't start out in a big conference. Started in the Dixie Conference, then was and Independent for 40 years.

So how do you think we go into a bigger conference and how did we get to play bigger schools? Bobby Bowden would play anybody, anywhere that's how. He and FSU scheduled tougher opponents, scheduled tougher out of conference opponents went on the road and played anybody.

Playing bigger schools while still an independent, getting invited into the ACC, those things weren't just handed to FSU. They were earned!

And that's what UCF needs to do.

I get what you’re saying and full kudos to FSU for pulling off what was a very viable strategy in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, that just isn’t how it works today. It’s like apples and oranges. Schedules are set too far in advance and the $$$$ gap between the P5 and the G5 is something that didn't really exist at all back in the 1970s.

NCAA schedules are set 5-7, sometimes 8-10 years in advance. Ohio State already has non conference games set for 2026 and 2027 for goodness sake.

It's easy to say... "oh well just schedule tougher games!" But pretty much no elite P5 program is scheduling a home and home with the best G5 because the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Beyond that, despite what people on this board will tell you, UCF starts so far behind the financial 8 ball that giving up home games to play out of conference road games isn't really a viable financial strategy either.

[UCFJayBird]

Let me ask all of you, UCF fans and non UCF fans, anyone participating in this thread,

FSU's schedule in 2018 is top 3 toughest(coming into the season). This isn't to say FSU is better than UCF. They aren't, at least as far as '17 and '18 are concerned. UCF is the better of the two teams, no question.

I'm just doing this for comparison sake and to see the answers.


Virginia Tech
Samford
Syracuse
N Illinois
Louisville
Miami
Wake Forest
Clemson
NC State
Notre Dame
Boston College
Florida

Now let's forget about those teams above rankings for a minute and the SOS of the above schedule. Let's also forget how the above teams records stand today. Answer the question below, as if the season hasn't started yet.


Just looking at those 12 schools, does anyone see UCF winning more than 6 of those?


Me,

Virginia Tech - W
Samford - W
Syracuse - W
N Illinois - W
Louisville - W
Miami - W
Wake Forest - W
Clemson - L
NC State - W
Notre Dame - L
Boston College - L
Florida - L


I have it 6-6


Now that's not to say my opinion is right or wrong. It could be either. I'm just curious of all the answers we will see.

I don't see a single game on that schedule that I think the Knights couldn't win or wouldn't at least be competitive in. I think it's interesting you have us losing to a 4-4 VT, and a 5-4 Miami, while beating 7-2 Syracuse and 6-2 NC State. I think we would beat all 4 of them, which following the schedule would put us 8-1 with our 1 loss being Clemson (i'll assume we lose that one, even though I think we could beat them) heading into the final 3 weeks, which would probably put us right around #8 in the rankings. I also think we could beat those last 3 teams as well.

Now i'm not saying we would, i'm saying we could. So I think 11-1 is possible, which would put us in the CFP discussion (if we won the CCG). Now odds dictate we stumble somewhere else too, of course. It's why going 11-1 is so dang difficult every year, and it's why going undefeated is such an accomplishment, because teams have off weeks. So I could easily see us going 8-4 with that schedule. I really don't see us doing much worse than that though. Obviously i've got black and gold glasses on, but since you asked, that's my .02.

Maybe in most seasons we go 8-4. But maybe this year was the year we'd go 11-1.

Clearly you didn't read, I said answer the question as if the season had not started. So we don't know if VT is 4-4, UM 5-4 etc etc

Answer in the thinking the season hasn't started yet and you are just now looking at that schedule.

What is the point of thinking about how they would perform before the season started?

You're taking incorrect perceptions about teams before a season starts and assessing whether or not you believe UCF would've beaten them? Sorry, i'm just not following the point.