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Greg Byrne, Alabama’s Director of Athletics, threw shade at UCF after Bama’s women’s basketball team beat UCF in a WNIT game. Clearly in his tweet below, he’s referring to when UCF had a Disney parade after beating Auburn in the Peach Bowl.
NOTE: UCF also had a Disney parade after beating Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. These are the perks of Disney being in the same town as your school.
Great win today over UCF for @AlabamaWBB! We're not ready to make it more than it was and schedule a Disney Parade...but we'll definitely take it. #RollTide pic.twitter.com/LyjvFKbmoO
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) March 18, 2018
It would have been pretty easy to let the folks at UCF do their thing, claim their title and move on from it. The thing is that no matter what happens, the mainstream media and others associated with Power 5 teams can’t keep UCF out of their mouths. Even March Madness has found a way to tie back to UCF’s National Championship claim.
Coming from the National Champions, this means a lot. https://t.co/MuzR9iwycj
— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) March 17, 2018
Advice to UMBC: pull a Central Florida. Declare yourselves champions, print up hats and T-shirts and just go home. It will never get better.
— Bob Ryan (@GlobeBobRyan) March 17, 2018
You can say what you want. You can think UCF claiming a National Championship is the dumbest thing in the world. You can think it’s sad and embarrassing. Regardless of what you think, NOBODY can deny how genius it was from a marketing standpoint. Just take a look at the numbers below.
Here’s what $171M+ worth of media exposure looks like over the course of @UCF_Football’s last three games...
— UCF Knights (@UCFKnights) March 16, 2018
https://t.co/cL2a8e7khr
*numbers compiled by Joyce Julius & Associates pic.twitter.com/G0HHQrLFyb
For those of you who continue to talk about UCF’s 2017 football season in an attempt to belittle the program and their fans, keep doing what you’re doing. All that’s coming from it is continued free exposure that the UCF brand wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Lastly, to address Greg Byrne, you don’t need to throw shade UCF’s way on Twitter. If you really want to shut up UCF, schedule a home-and-home with the Knights and settle it on the field. That is if you’re not too scared of falling to the Knights just like Auburn did.
Check out UCF Athletic Director Danny White’s all class response to Greg Byrne:
Our policy has been to schedule Disney parades when we win New Year’s Day bowl games. We’ve won 2 in the last 5 years. The most recent in 2017 when we were the only undefeated team in America, & National Champions. If y’all wanna have a parade for WNIT wins - more power to ya! https://t.co/pgFLN8mqj9
— Danny White (@UCFDannyWhite) March 18, 2018
Stay classy Bama.