UCF Football: What can Knights can do to impress playoff committee?

A key showdown in a Group of Five conference takes place in Week 12 between the No. 24 Cincinnati Bearcats and No. 12 UCF football.

The saga of UCF football trying to fight its way into the College Football Playoff field hasn’t gone its way the past two years. Yes, UCF football is on a magical run right now in holding the longest active FBS winning streak dating back to its time under Scott Frost. But a strength of schedule this year that doesn’t even rank in the nation’s top 120 doesn’t really deserve a look for the College Football Playoff.

This is why it’s so difficult to judge the merits of the UCF Knights since the start of the 2017 campaign. Playing in the American Athletic Conference means that a team needs to have a pretty challenging non-conference slate that features a load of Power Five conference opponents. UCF just didn’t have that this fall.

What UCF football does have is a Heisman contender (although an extreme long shot at this point) in quarterback McKenzie Milton and an offense surrounding him that puts up points in bunches. Milton does have a very nice stat line this year with nearly 3,000 total yards and 28 touchdowns.

The hope for UCF in Week 12 is that it can do enough with the national spotlight of ESPN’s College GameDay set on campus that it can gain some respect. UCF gets a quality opponent in the one loss and No. 24 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats at home this week. It’s at least a good shot to beat a good team with a much larger audience than this team usually gets on any given week.

Cincinnati’s head coach Luke Fickell will also be looking to make a statement that his team is for real and deserves a look as the Group of Five representative in a New Year’s Six Bowl. For a Week 12 AAC matchup that doesn’t feature a top 10 team, there is a lot on the line here for UCF and Cincinnati.

The dull news for UCF football is that there is almost nothing that it can do at this point to impress the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. It would have to fight past the likes of a lengthy list of teams to get into the field this year. That list includes the Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Michigan Wolverines, and Georgia Bulldogs, just to name roughly half of the teams that UCF falls in line behind right now for the Playoff.

UCF does still have a lot to play for including a season straight top 15 finish in the AP Poll and potentially another New Year’s Six Bowl win. Defeating a quality Auburn Tigers team last year was nothing to take for granted, and UCF could get another shot at knocking off a top Power Five program.