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UCF Football Gets Roasted For Declaring Themselves ‘2021 Florida State Champions’ With Bowl Rings

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  • UCF football beat two teams in the state of Florida last season.
  • Despite the lack of in-state opponents, the Knights declared themselves 2021 state champions.
  • In turn, they are getting roasted.
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The University of Central Florida football program is really good at claiming unofficial titles. Despite being excluded from the College Football Playoff in 2017, the Knights claimed a national championship.

Now, five years later, they are claiming a state championship. Something that doesn’t even really exist.

During the 2021 season, the first with head coach Gus Mahlzahn at the helm, UCF went 9-4. In doing so, the Knights won the Gasparilla Bowl in front of a sold-out, rhythmically-challenged crowd in December.

Their opponents in that bowl game was the Florida Gators.

In turn, UCF is declaring itself 2021 Florida state champions despite playing only two of 10 in-state programs. The Knights distributed their Gasparilla Bowl rings on Monday.

On the left side, it declares them the #1 team in the state.

Central Florida is claiming to the be the best football team in the state of Florida in 2021.

By UCF’s logic, here is how it breaks down:

  • UCF beat Florida 29-17 in the Gasparilla Bowl.
  • Florida beat Florida State 24-21 in the final game of the regular season.
  • Florida State beat Miami 31-28 in the middle of November.
  • In turn, UCF is the best team in the state of Florida.

While the transitive property narrative is a fun thing to joke about, it does not actually carry any weight like the Knights think that it does. It does not mean that UCF is the best college football team in the state.

For that to really be true, UCF would have needed to beat all of the following FBS programs, or at least the big ones:

  • University of Florida — won.
  • University of South Florida — won.
  • Florida State University — did not play.
  • Florida International University — did not play.
  • Florida Atlantic University — did not play.
  • University of Miami — did not play.

And the following FCS programs:

  • Bethune-Cookman University — won.
  • Florida A&M University — did not play.
  • Stetson University — did not play.

Central Florida is claiming that it was the best team in Florida but didn’t play two FCS teams nor four FBS teams. It’s not the first time that a Florida program claimed a state championship, but it’s still a tough look.

As could be expected, college football fans had a field day. Some were salty, others had jokes — take a look: