2018-19 Was The Greatest Season of UCF Sports in Recent History

We ran the numbers and the verdict is in: The 2018-19 season was the winningest season for the UCF Knights athletic department in its recent history.

We added up the win/loss records for every UCF sport since 2001-02, when UCF Softball began. UCF has maintained the same portfolio of sports since that season. We counted ties (found in both soccer programs and one softball tie in that program’s history) as half a win and half a loss. And because they don’t keep track of team wins and losses, unfortunately we had to leave out both golf programs and Women’s Track & Field (If you have an idea on how to extrapolate a W/L record for those programs, let me know).

Here are the results from this 18-year period:

For the first time in its history, UCF teams accumulated a total win percentage above .700 - .712 to be exact. The next highest was in 2003-04, when Football was in the MAC and everything else was in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

In fact, the last two years have produced two of the three winningest years in this time period.

There are some other trends to note:

• UCF peaked as a whole in its last two years in the A-Sun before the step-up in competition into C-USA before the 2005-06 season.
• It took four years for UCF to stay above .500 as a member of C-USA.
• UCF peaked in Conference USA in 2011-12, its next-to-last year there.
• The upward trend continued in The American with one let-up in 2015-16.
• 2015-16 was the year of 0-12 in football and the hiring of Danny White in December. That season was UCF’s worst as a whole since the first C-USA year.
• White turned over the coaching staffs of seven of the ten sports listed following 2015-16. UCF got back over .600 in 2016-17, and reached .700 last year for the first time.

UCF Football has just sold out its season ticket allotment for the 2019 season, and deservedly so. It’s a direct function of success on the field. But the other sports should be rewarded just as much for their success the past two seasons as well. Home field/court advantage breeds success, especially with a fan base as young and enthusiastic as UCF’s.

I personally hope there’s a dramatic increase of fan attendance for those other sports as well. Their hard work and success deserves reward from the fan base as much as any sport.