It’s not an official national championship, but it is some level of validation to all of their very public preening.
Following up on its bowl win over Auburn that capped a perfect 13-0 season, UCF made quite the public spectacle in declaring itself national champions, replete with the university paying title bonuses to assistants who left for Nebraska, a parade and the governor of the state of Florida issuing an official proclamation naming the Knights the best team in college football. Of course, Alabama won the official title on the field Monday night, with the Associated Press rubber-stamping the Crimson Tide as the No. 1 team in the country in its final poll of the 2017 season.
‘Bama wasn’t a unanimous national champion, however, as four of the 61 first-place votes went to, you guessed it, Central Florida. This marks the first time in the College Football Playoff era, and the first time under any system since 2011 -- that was the year Alabama beat LSU in the BCS title game -- that the No.1 team in the country failed to be a unanimous selection of the AP voters.
The sixth-place finish for UCF is also the highest for a Group of Five team since Boise State ended the 2009 season fourth in the country.
National runner-up Georgia finished No. 2, while the other two playoff participants, Oklahoma and Clemson, finished third and fourth, respectively. Ohio State was the highest-ranked non-playoff team at No. 5. The remainder of the Top 10 was rounded out by Wisconsin (No. 7), Penn State (No. 8), TCU (No. 9) and Auburn (No. 10).
As you may have noticed, no Pac-12 teams were ranked in the Top 10. The highest-ranked team from that Power Five conference was USC, which came in at No. 12.
