Official UCF Sports Thread - Basketball: NIT Bid? Football: Spring Practice Underway

[nymets1]

I think there's a slight possibility of us getting into the top 4 but A lot would have to happen. We would have to win at USF and our conference championship game to stay undefeated. Than we need Clemson, Notre Dame, Michigan, Georgia and Oklahoma all to lose at least 1 more game. Which is highly unlikely. What is up with Washington State being ranked ahead of us? I feel there's no way Washington State should ever be ranked above us this year but I understand Alabama, Clemson, Notre DAME, Michigan, Georgia and Oklahoma.

West Virginia needs to beat Oklahoma
Washington needs to beat Washington State
Ohio State needs to beat Michigan
Georgia Tech needs to win at Georgia
South Carolina needs to win at Clemson
USC needs to beat Notre Dame

Than if any of those top teams play in the championship game, They need to lose.

[UCF]

We’ll find out tonight if the win over ranked Cincinnati carried enough weight. Otherwise our cfp chances are over imo.

[drsd]

I think there's a slight possibility of us getting into the top 4 but A lot would have to happen. We would have to win at USF and our conference championship game to stay undefeated. Than we need Clemson, Notre Dame, Michigan, Georgia and Oklahoma all to lose at least 1 more game. Which is highly unlikely. What is up with Washington State being ranked ahead of us? I feel there's no way Washington State should ever be ranked above us this year but I understand Alabama, Clemson, Notre DAME, Michigan, Georgia and Oklahoma.

West Virginia needs to beat Oklahoma
Washington needs to beat Washington State
Ohio State needs to beat Michigan
Georgia Tech needs to win at Georgia
South Carolina needs to win at Clemson
USC needs to beat Notre Dame

Than if any of those top teams play in the championship game, They need to lose.

It is fine if Alabama, Notre Dame, and Clemson win out. That could have the Knights at #4 if all of this happens:

1) North Western beats OSU/Michigan in the B10 title game.
2) Alabama beats Georgia in the SEC title game.
3) Oklahoma loses on the road to West Virginia.
4) Washington beats Washington St.

UCF probably loses out to any P5 team with a single loss (for example, if OSU beats Michigan on the road and wins the B10 title game, The Buckeyes will probably overtake the Knights in the rankings). But if these four games all go like this, I cannot see a B10 team in the playoffs, and I cannot see a two-loss Oklahoma or Washington St. getting a bid if the last game played was a loss.

I am actually worried that the 2-loss LSU Tigers will overtake the Knights even if all the above happens. Meaning we might also need:
5) LSU to lose to TAMU.


In conclusion, for the Knights to get a playoff slot, they need to win 2 games and 5 games they have no control over need to all break in UCF's favor. That means we need 7 games to all go perfectly.


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[drsd]

Just noticed that the Men's B-ball team won a preseason tourney just following the loss to FAU. The Knights beat CSU Fullerton, St. Joe's, and WKU to get this. The later two wins will help the Knights RPI!


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[UCFJayBird]

Odds are certainly stacked against it. There's a path, but things have to break a very specific way.

It'll be interesting to see where we're at tonight in the CFP. I'm thinking 9-10, depending if we jump Ohio State (we should). Even Herbstreit this morning said we should be 7th ahead of Oklahoma. The national narrative has changed a bit since Saturday night.

I can see us getting to 5th or 6th, I just don't see us making the playoff with our schedule and the teams still ahead of us. It doesn't help that USF has lost 4 straight and we're either playing Memphis or a depleted Houston in the CCG. Honestly we'll probably end up playing Memphis again due to King being out, which might give us a shot to "redeem" our poor performance in their house.

edit: and I don't want to get ahead of myself. Still have to take care of business against USF, who would love nothing more than to spoil our fun. Our games are usually pretty damn close, so can't take anything for granted on rivalry weekend.

[UCFJayBird]

Just noticed that the Men's B-ball team won a preseason tourney just following the loss to FAU. The Knights beat CSU Fullerton, St. Joe's, and WKU to get this. The later two wins will help the Knights RPI!


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They've looked much better since FAU. I think it may have been the kick in the pants they needed, might've come into the season thinking they'd coast through their weaker opponents. I think they've got votes on the coaches poll, puts them in the late 40s I think.

Dawkins looks good, Tacko is Tacko (please just shoot FTs underhanded or something), and BJ is a gamer. BJ has struggled the last two games but hits big shots as always.

[UCF]

Just noticed that the Men's B-ball team won a preseason tourney just following the loss to FAU. The Knights beat CSU Fullerton, St. Joe's, and WKU to get this. The later two wins will help the Knights RPI!


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They managed to blow a 20 point lead to FAU at home. Going to see them play Saturday for the first time this season.

[nymets1]

i don't know how many of you were on campus when the college game day bus rolled by on Thursday and/ or attended college gameday/ The game on Saturday. But I was there Thursday to watch the college gameday bus come by and attended college gameday. I miss college gameday as they probably not coming back onto campus until next football season.

I want to go to see UCF at USF game but I don't want to use unpaid time off but I might have to use like 4 hours of unpaid time off to go. I haven't decided whether i want to go or not but i'm not in a rush because there's plenty of seats in their stadium.

[UCF]

USF is giving away tickets at local Dunkin’ Donuts shops from what I’m seeing...

[craig01]

USF is giving away tickets at local Dunkin’ Donuts shops from what I’m seeing...

It’s a sad state of affairs in Tampa.

Give Charlie an extension. I’ll contribute to the athletic fund if it helps.

[nymets1]

USF is giving away tickets at local Dunkin’ Donuts shops from what I’m seeing...

Upper bowl ticket? I doubt any lower bowl tickets are given away.

[UCF]

USF is giving away tickets at local Dunkin’ Donuts shops from what I’m seeing...

Upper bowl ticket? I doubt any lower bowl tickets are given away.

Yeah, I would guess upper bowl. Lower bowl looks like was bought up by fans hoping to strike gold in resale.

[drsd]

ESPN has UCF favored at 85% for a road game.

and this:

If South Florida wins: UCF would still head to the American title game and have a shot at a New Year's Six bowl, but with one-loss Utah State now in the rankings (and two-loss Boise State), the American front-runners could have a little bit of competition if they stumble. Utah State and Boise State also play each other Saturday, and the winner will claim the Mountain Division in the MWC.

So for a Peach bowl game against LSU, the Knights could actually lose this game and still go Major bowling.


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[craig01]

Very unlikely with the Peach Bowl.

Probably the Fiesta should Ucf be invited somewhere

But I hope it's the Peach Bowl.

[UCFJayBird]

Ucf moves up to #9 in CFP rankings, jumping Ohio State and West Virginia.


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[N4U|Redux]

First off, I expect a 64-12 esque game this weekend. USF is a deflated team that's extremely poorly coached and matches up very badly with UCF.

But - and I realize this will go over badly - do you really think UCF is objectively QUALIFIED (read: not "skilled") to get into the CFP?

They played 1 P5 team. 1 ranked team (zero which remain ranked). The SOS is complete trash compared to other CFP candidates.

I'm not suggesting you wouldn't compete in a CFP matchup per se, I'm suggesting the schedule just gives us no objective way to state you should be there. You can only play your schedule and you (mostly) dominated it. But, it was filled with nobodies the past 2 seasons. Unfortunately, we have no "signal" that you can actually hang with CFP programs besides the bowl game last year; which last year is irrelevant to this year.

The AAC sucks fellas. And so has your OOC schedule. It's like a Camry beating a bunch of other Honda's in a race. Maybe the Camry would compete against a Lambo but if I have 6 other Lambos to choose from why would I, as the organizer of a race, pick the Camry unless I saw it beat, at least, a BMW a couple times?

[nymets1]

AAC doesn't suck, Cincinnati, USF, Houston and Memphis are respectable. Navy was respectable last year. Temple is respectable this year. Especially Cincy and Houston. USF, Memphis and Temple are not powerhouse teams by any means but they don't suck.

USF has lost their last 4 games after starting out 7 and 0. They lost bad at Houston giving up 57 points, didn't lose bad at Temple or at Cincinnati but than they got crushed at home to Tulane 41 to 15.

UCF football could use a new football stadium at some point whether a new stadium or expand current one. Increase the seating capacity to somewhere around 60,000.

[craig01]

Qualified?

This is the only sport that qualifies teams based off of opinions, loops of data, and votes

The Tampa Bay Rays were certainly qualified to be a playoff team, winning 90 games, and having played nearly 40 games against two teams that each won over 100 games.

Their strength of schedule certainly was the most difficult in baseball.

Yet, they did not qualify. Oh, baseball doesn't use the same format to determine playoff teams

You can argue the P5 conferences have more difficult schedules and have more depth of talent.

But you can also argue that they do not, with the exception of a handful of programs that sit at the top of each conference.

Is the invitational about qualifying based on subjective opinions, or is it about playing the best teams.

Seven players from last years Ucf team took NFL snaps this year. The talent and depth is significant.

There is at least that many or more players on this roster that have a Sunday future.

Is Notre Dame better than UCF? Oklahoma, Georgia, LSU, Michigan? How many pedestrian or just plain bad teams are in each of these conferences?

MOST.

Alabama and Clemson are clearly on a different stage.

For everyone else ... it's debatable ... including UCF.

The real question is why not?

[UCF]

If we weren’t 23-0 I might accept not getting in.

However, I watched the citadel go into half time tied with Alabama. Anything is possible.

I’d rather see us lose trying to win the invitational than win the fiesta or peach this year. First round would likely be vs Alabama.

[N4U|Redux]

I see a lot of mentions of last year. Which means nothing for this year. I'm not even accepting that thought process as valid and will be ignoring it.

Any given Saturday definitely applies here. And is why UCF might actually fare well in the CFP. The same can be said for most teams in the top 15. Also invalid.

Trying to defend USF this year as respectable helps prove my point. You only feel that way because they started 7-0. Which is just a pretty number. That's it. As soon as they played teams with a pulse they started losing. UCF has proven they can beat those same teams and are hence the objectively better team. There's clear signal of that. There's no such signal from UCF this year that they'd continue winning if they played teams with the "next-level of pulse" (I.e. ranked teams).

As a fellow AAC member I certainly empathize with the frustration around the requirement of doing well in a glorified beauty pageant to make it into the CFP. But that's the system we're in.

You're completely delusional if you don't think the AAC isn't a notch, or several, below P5 conferences. Moreover that your OOC schedule, and unfortunate P5 cancellation, didn't further weaken your ability to show you belong. Hell, you haven't played a full season in each of the last 2 years. You're also skating into the CCG avoiding a team with their best player out. It's unreal how little opportunity you've had to show you belong entirely due to situations outside your control.

The question of why not, in a vacuum, is fair. In the real world, it means someone who's shown a lot more being left out. That's why not.