UCF Football: 3 reasons Knights deserved shot at College Football Playoff
By Zach Bigalke
3. The double standard around strength of schedule
The elephant in the room when talking about a Group of Five team is always strength of schedule. Common perceptions dictate that a team like UCF simply doesn’t play enough real tests in the regular season to justify a shot at playing for the big prize.
Only so many teams can win the realignment prize. And, perhaps, someday one of the Power Five leagues will come calling for a school like UCF or South Florida to fill a hole in its Sunshine State recruiting market. Until that time, though, we need to really look at the double standard around schedule strength.
A team like Alabama can have its lone loss written off as a fluke, even though they played a marginally difficult schedule. In addition to being less formidable than in past years, the SEC also did not schedule Alabama against Georgia this regular season. The Tide played Fresno State, Colorado State, and FCS Mercer along with a Florida State team that barely reached bowl eligibility. Had they played a tougher schedule, Alabama might have suffered another loss or two.
UCF played one Power Five school, Maryland, in a 38-10 blowout on the road. Their other scheduled Power Five test, against a Georgia Tech team that finished third in the ACC Coastal but missed a bowl game, was canceled due to Hurricane Irma. And the Knights also played three games against a pair of 10-win teams in conference play, beating Memphis twice and South Florida once.
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The selection committee can essentially justify any number of excuses to exclude a Group of Five school from the College Football Playoff conversation. UCF jumped through every hoop, overcame early adversity out of its control, and still didn’t do enough for a dozen folks picking names without any transparency to their decision-making process besides a vague series of often contradictory explanations. UCF explained on New Year’s Day and all season long why they deserved a shot at the College Football Playoff.