UCF Knights: Undefeated National Champions?

There’s only one team in college football who won all of their games and that’s the UCF Knights. Despite going 12-0 in the regular season, UCF was only able to climb as high as no. 12 in the College Football Playoff Committee rankings. After beating no. 7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl, the Knights deserve to be recognized in some form as National Champions.

Lets talk strength of schedule. Leave your SOS rankings aside and look at the facts.

• UCF defeated Auburn who defeated both teams playing in the committee’s national title game.
• UCF has 4 wins against 10+ win teams while Alabama has 2.
• 3 of UCF’s victories are against conference teams who have P6 wins this season (Memphis against UCLA, South Florida against Texas Tech and Navy against Virginia).
• UCF’s 31-21 win over Navy snapped Navy’s 17-game home winning streak.
• UCF is 2-0 against P6 teams this season (wins against no. 7 Auburn and Maryland).
• ESPN’s Football Power Index ranks UCF’s strength of record no. 6 overall. Strength of Record reflects chance that an average top-25 team would have team's record or better, given the schedule.

With strength of schedule being the main argument for keeping UCF ranked so low, why aren’t there more undefeated teams? The “experts” make it sound like it’s pretty easy to win all your games if you’re talented in a non-power conference. Out of the 61 G5 teams who aren’t UCF, only South Florida (10-2) and Troy (11-2) have less than 3 losses. Not only was UCF able to pull off a perfect record, but they did it after playing 11 straight weeks without a break.

Lets look at some other facts just in case you still need some convincing that UCF is worthy.

• UCF finishes the season averaging the most points per game in the FBS at 48.2.
• Only Oklahoma (632) has scored more total points than UCF (627). Oklahoma has played 1 more game than the Knights.
• UCF scored the most points out of any team this season against Auburn.
• QB McKenzie Milton was 2nd behind Baker Mayfield in passer rating (179.3) and yards per attempt (10.2). He also finished 8th in Heisman voting.

So what can happen to officially make UCF the National Champions? The most legitimate way would be if one of the polls ranked UCF no. 1 after the playoff championship game. This has most recently happened in 2003 when LSU won the BCS title game but the AP poll ranked USC no. 1 in their final poll. The most recent AP poll and Coaches Poll had UCF at no. 10 which make it a far jump to no. 1.

The only other option is becoming the self-proclaimed National Champions which Danny White has already done. Don’t think it’s a crazy concept as many teams have done it before. What do you think?