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HOT TAKE: UCF Deserves to be Ranked in the Top 6

The facts are the facts and you can’t ignore them any longer

Cincinnati v Central Florida Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I think UCF should be in the top 4 despite being undefeated. Georgia and Michigan at one loss probably still have a better resume than UCF. Outside of those top 5 teams, there’s no way you can sit here and tell me any of them deserve to be ranked above UCF.

Lets compare UCF to the other 1 loss teams in the top 10:

Comparison

Category UCF Ohio State Oklahoma Washington State
Category UCF Ohio State Oklahoma Washington State
Points Per 43.6 41.6 49.5 40.5
Yards Per 528.9 541.8 576.1 482.3
Points Allowed Per 20.4 24.6 30.7 22.6
Yards Allowed Per 419.1 398.6 425.8 333.8
Turnover Margin +16 +4 -2 +6
Best Win vs. Cincinnati (9-2) at Penn State (8-3) vs. Army (9-2) vs. Utah (8-3)
Wins Against +.500 Teams 4 2 3 4
ESPN FPI SOR #10 #7 #8 #9
Losses None at Purdue (5-6) vs. Texas (8-3) at USC (5-6)

The Argument Against Oklahoma

People want to rip on UCF for giving up 40 points and 670 yards to Temple (7-4) but somehow Oklahoma gets a pass for giving up 40 points and 524 yards to Kansas (3-8)? Please, give me a break. Oklahoma is giving up 10.3 more points per game than UCF while 7 of the teams they’ve faced don’t even have a winning record.

The Argument Against Ohio State

I’m not going to spend too much time on this one. They lost by 29 to Purdue (5-6) and beat Maryland (5-6) by 1 in overtime after giving up 51 points and 535 yards. Yet, people want to point out our 1 point win against Memphis (7-4) as a reason why we don’t belong. This one pretty much speaks for itself and it showed in todays AP Poll.

The Argument Against Washington State

Washington State is the hardest team to argue against. For the most part, they’ve taken care of business on both sides of the ball against as many +.500 teams as UCF. Are wins against Utah (8-3), Oregon (7-4), Stanford (6-4) and Cal (6-4) that much more impressive than wins against Cincinnati (9-2), Temple (7-4), Memphis (7-4) and Pitt (7-4)? Maybe, but that doesn’t change the fact that they lost to a 5-6 USC team. That’s one blemish UCF does not have which I think separates them from the Cougars.

What About LSU?

They have 2 losses. Next question.

Can UCF Make the Playoff?

It’s going to take a lot of chaos in the last few weeks of college football. A lot of teams are on upset alert this week. Michigan at Ohio State, Washington State vs. Washington, Notre Dame at USC and Oklahoma at West Virginia all could cause major shakeups in the rankings. Not to mention championship week that will feature games like Alabama vs. Georgia. None of this, of course, matters unless UCF continues to take care of business continuing this Friday against South Florida.

P.S. If you’re going to respond to this with something like “Oklahoma would score 80 on UCF” or anything similar, please, don’t waste either of our time.

Poll

Where should UCF be ranked?

This poll is closed

  • 16%
    Top 4
    (44 votes)
  • 50%
    5-6
    (137 votes)
  • 19%
    7-8
    (53 votes)
  • 5%
    9-10
    (14 votes)
  • 8%
    Outside top 10
    (22 votes)
270 votes total Vote Now