UCF proclaiming themselves national champions is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of offseason storylines. The latest person to get riled up over the Knights’ stunt after last season? Northern Illinois AD Sean Frazier.
“Don’t try to bully the committee,” Frazier told CBS Sports. “That’s what these guys are doing now. If you want to put a banner up that says ‘national championship,’ God bless you. You can do that. I’ve got no problem with [White] doing that. But to say they should have been in the final four is an unrealistic expectation.”
He added: “So I’m supposed to give them [respect] because they’ve got some false narrative of P6? No... I think people know that. That’s the reason they don’t have a [Power Five designation] now is those teams have not historically been good in football. That’s why there is a Big East basketball and American in football. [The market] looked at the football, and they were horrible. That was the difference.”
Don’t, uh, hold back there Sean.
AAC commish Mike Aresco predictably shot back in the same piece by saying that the results speak for themselves. The AAC has captured half of the four Group of Five bids since the formation of the College Football Playoff, with the MAC and Mountain West splitting the other two.
Frazier has previously tried to advocate for the Group of Five forming its own playoff in the past but it seems that all the marketing talk out of Orlando was really a bit too much for him when asked about it again. He’s unlikely to be the only who is tired of all the UCF love though and went on the record to say what many were thinking.
It’s too bad that the Huskies schedule is full in 2018 because UCF-Northern Illinois would be a heck of a game for the fireworks on (and off) the field.