sonce one of their computer models used in choosing the final four had UCF as the #1, the NCAA officially recognized their title
https://247sports.com/Article/Its-official-NCAA-record-books-acknowledge-UCFs-title-121035514/
Central Florida’s claim to the 2017 National Championship is officially in the record books. With the NCAA putting out its annual list of records, both individual and team, for the 2018 season, the section on national champions acknowledges the Colley Matrix’s choice of UCF as the season’s title-winners.
That section can be viewed on page 115, here.
The plus mark refers to this section: “Beginning in 2014, the College Football Playoff was used to determine national champions in FBS. All ‘major selectors’ not otherwise listed also selected the CFP champion as its higest ranked team in those seasons. In years where a ‘major selector’ had a team other than the CFP champion as highest ranked team in its final poll that team is listed below the CFP Champion.”
In this case, Colley is considered the major selector. The Colley Matrix was one of the official Bowl Championship Series rankers, lending some legitimacy to UCF’s claims when the formula picked the 13-0 Knights at No. 1 over CFP champ Alabama. In fact, UCF athletic director Danny White referenced Colley’s ranking — albeit not by name — when talking to 247Sports about why the school was claiming a national title after its 34-27 victory over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
“We’re trying to create a conversation,” White told 247Sports. “I don’t know how you can decide a true national champion with four subjectively-picked teams by a committee. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s the only sport in America where it’s not settled on the field or the court. Professional or college, there’s no other sport where you can be your conference champion, you can play every single game and win every single one of them and have no opportunity for the so-called overall championship. We mean no disrespect to Georgia and certainly Alabama, who ended up winning the game; they’re the CFP champions. But we feel very strongly our kids deserve — there are several computer polls that agree with us — to be called national champions. Since the dawn of college football, that has always happened. In this circumstance, certainly the way the Peach Bowl played out, [Auburn] has a great team. Auburn beat Georgia and Alabama. There’s a compelling case that our team deserves to be national champions absent a system, an expanded playoff, that truly decides it on the field.”
4COMMENTS
White went on to talk about how other programs — including Alabama — claimed national titles before the College Football Playoff era despite dissenting views from the polls.
“If there is a former football player of XYZ University that claimed a national championship in 1992, along with one or two other schools that also claimed a national championship, that’s a big part of what those people are: they’re a national championship football player for their alma mater,” White said. “There’s plenty of examples of that: teams that didn’t accomplish what our team did this year. So, if it’s good enough for those kids at one point and grown men now to claim a national championship, then why not our kids? They went 13-0 when nobody else in the country did. And they did everything in their control. What was outside of their control was no one else went undefeated. That’s one part of it. I feel like as a leader and athletic director, it’s my job to always prioritize our student-athletes. I always will. And I’m going to fight for them when appropriate and I feel like it’s appropriate to fight for them right now.”
https://247sports.com/Article/Its-official-NCAA-record-books-acknowledge-UCFs-title-121035514/
Central Florida’s claim to the 2017 National Championship is officially in the record books. With the NCAA putting out its annual list of records, both individual and team, for the 2018 season, the section on national champions acknowledges the Colley Matrix’s choice of UCF as the season’s title-winners.
That section can be viewed on page 115, here.
The plus mark refers to this section: “Beginning in 2014, the College Football Playoff was used to determine national champions in FBS. All ‘major selectors’ not otherwise listed also selected the CFP champion as its higest ranked team in those seasons. In years where a ‘major selector’ had a team other than the CFP champion as highest ranked team in its final poll that team is listed below the CFP Champion.”
In this case, Colley is considered the major selector. The Colley Matrix was one of the official Bowl Championship Series rankers, lending some legitimacy to UCF’s claims when the formula picked the 13-0 Knights at No. 1 over CFP champ Alabama. In fact, UCF athletic director Danny White referenced Colley’s ranking — albeit not by name — when talking to 247Sports about why the school was claiming a national title after its 34-27 victory over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
“We’re trying to create a conversation,” White told 247Sports. “I don’t know how you can decide a true national champion with four subjectively-picked teams by a committee. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s the only sport in America where it’s not settled on the field or the court. Professional or college, there’s no other sport where you can be your conference champion, you can play every single game and win every single one of them and have no opportunity for the so-called overall championship. We mean no disrespect to Georgia and certainly Alabama, who ended up winning the game; they’re the CFP champions. But we feel very strongly our kids deserve — there are several computer polls that agree with us — to be called national champions. Since the dawn of college football, that has always happened. In this circumstance, certainly the way the Peach Bowl played out, [Auburn] has a great team. Auburn beat Georgia and Alabama. There’s a compelling case that our team deserves to be national champions absent a system, an expanded playoff, that truly decides it on the field.”
4COMMENTS
White went on to talk about how other programs — including Alabama — claimed national titles before the College Football Playoff era despite dissenting views from the polls.
“If there is a former football player of XYZ University that claimed a national championship in 1992, along with one or two other schools that also claimed a national championship, that’s a big part of what those people are: they’re a national championship football player for their alma mater,” White said. “There’s plenty of examples of that: teams that didn’t accomplish what our team did this year. So, if it’s good enough for those kids at one point and grown men now to claim a national championship, then why not our kids? They went 13-0 when nobody else in the country did. And they did everything in their control. What was outside of their control was no one else went undefeated. That’s one part of it. I feel like as a leader and athletic director, it’s my job to always prioritize our student-athletes. I always will. And I’m going to fight for them when appropriate and I feel like it’s appropriate to fight for them right now.”
