UCF Football: It’s time for fans to stop whining about the Knights celebrations

The UCF football team has claimed a national championship for the 2017 season, and fans need to once and for all just let it go and let them have their fun.

UCF football isn’t one of the names that springs to mind when you think of college football powerhouses. Rarely do you hear the Knights mentioned in the same breath with Alabama, Ohio State, Texas USC or Notre Dame.

Despite that, the UCF football team did something no other Division I program did in 2017…

Win every last one of their games. Every. Last. One.

By that fact and that fact alone, UCF athletic director Danny White has encouraged the celebration of a national championship for his team – complete with rings, a parade and a banner at Spectrum Stadium which was unveiled earlier this month.

Hell, the UCF coaches were even paid national championship bonuses.

The arguments which took place on social media as the validity of a UCF national title were heated before the rings and banner were unleashed. Now things have gotten downright ugly, with an ongoing barrage of insults and idiocy going back and forth.

The underlying reason for denying UCF a national title claim?

They didn’t play anybody.

There may be some truth to that statement, but then again, it all depends on who you consider “anybody” to be.

You say they didn’t play anybody? Hey, they can only play the teams on their schedule – the same argument heard over and over again from Power-5 teams who are ripped for playing more than one FCS opponent and other weak non-conference foes.

Did they play the most brutal schedule in college football? Not by a longshot. But they played Division 1 teams every week with the exception of Austin Peay (the same Austin Peay that national runner-up Georgia happens to be playing in their 2018 opener by the way).

They beat No. 25 Memphis…twice.

UCF Knights Football

They beat No. 10 Auburn…the only team to beat both Alabama and Georgia last year (you remember, the two teams who played in the national championship game?), and they did it knowing their head coach was headed to Lincoln, Nebraska to become the Cornhuskers new head coach as soon as the game was over.

Most importantly, they didn’t lose to anyone. They won every game – a stat which at one time was of the utmost importance to winning a college football national championship. A stat which no one else playing Division 1 football can claim for the 2017 season.

There’s no false equivalence which will make UCF’s claim to a national title go away. The playoffs weren’t expanded, and there’s no turning back the clock. UCF doesn’t play in the SEC, or the Pac-12, or the Big Ten, or the ACC or the Big 12, so projecting how their season might have turned out if they played in one of those conferences is a moot point.

There was no “got next” waiting on the sidelines of the Georgia-Alabama national championship game.

There’s no scenario where anyone can 100 percent prove UCF would not have gone undefeated in 2017 playing in a different conference.

A loss may have been more likely, but a loss cannot be assumed.

That’s why they play the games. If you play in the top division in college football, and you win all your games, you deserve a shot at the title. If you don’t get that shot, then claim it.

Schools “claim” national championships all the time (certain schools in a certain conference whose hub is in the southeastern part of the United States are particularly adept at this tactic), so why is UCF’s claim any less valid?

It’s not. So get over it.

Some of the constants you hear about the game of college football are that “it’s just kids” and “it’s supposed to be fun.”  Well, here’s a news flash. These kids on the UCF football team and their fans are having fun. Stop raining on their parade.

Next: 2018 Spring Football Winners and Losers

College football has had shared titles in the past, and the game managed to go on without destroying itself. Alabama may just have to share it’s 2017 national title glory with the UCF Knights.

You want the right to deny them their championship claim? Win all your games next time.