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UCF AD issues statement to College GameDay wanting help to fix ‘broken’ CFB Playoff model

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

UCF athletic director Danny White is a genius. Whether you agree with his antics or not, his persistence on declaring the Knights national champions after the 2017 season has given the program an unprecedented amount of attention.

And now, White is at it again.

During a College GameDay segment, analysts talked about the CFB Playoff and who should be a contender for one of the four spots. While UCF’s name was mentioned, it was disregarded as a true contender for a spot, much like last year, despite a 20-game winning streak.

After catching wind of the discussion, White decided to write a letter to the College GameDay crew.

From the letter:

College football is the only sport in America that is not settled on the field — we need to fix that! I heard our winning streak was met with a comment of “who cares!” What? Sports should be all about wins and losses and not the brand on a jersey.

College football has become a subjective popularity contest. The Knights represent all of the teams who — for reasons of history, geography or politics — are left out of the club. These factors will not define our bright future. Our student-athletes don’t want anything given to them…they just want a chance.

…

The American Athletic Conference partners with ESPN. As such, we hope to work with you as partners to fix a broken model.

White does make some valid points, though you may not agree with him. Despite an undefeated record and wins over three ranked opponents, UCF was nowhere close to reaching the College Football Playoff.

After UCF defeated Auburn — the SEC West champion last year — White and UCF declared itself national champion and has paraded the word around for the past year. Now, officially, the NCAA acknowledges the Knights as national champions.

The only way to fix the model — probably — would be to expand the CFB Playoff to eight teams. That could allows a Group of Five conference team to earn a bid. Is that coming in the near future?

It may be a few years, but it will likely be a discussion somewhere down the road.

White’s full letter to College GameDay can be viewed below.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB