Mike Bianchi:
UCF football takes financial hit due to Irma.
Running off at the typewriter …
If UCF keeps having to cancel home football games, we may have to consider including the Knights in the Hurricane Irma Relief Fund. Athletics director Danny
White told me after the Knights were forced to cancel today’s big nonconference game with Georgia Tech that — from his seat as somebody who is expected to raise enough money to sufficiently fund an expansive 16-team athletic program — this is akin to financial Armageddon.
“This is worst-case scenario,” White said. “We have been planning for the last eight months on these two homes games [Memphis last week and Georgia Tech this week]. We were hoping we would look good and excite our fans against FIU [a 61-17 victory] and I think we did that with our young offense really showing some major progress. We were expecting some significant single-game revenue surges for both Memphis and Georgia Tech and now we’re scrambling. This is a lot of lost revenue for us.”
Fortunately, the American Athletic Conference re-sched-
uled the Memphis game for Sept. 30 and UCF is still hastily searching for another home game against an FCS opponent to fill its Oct. 28 bye week.
Still, the Knights — even if they can add an opponent on Oct. 28 — are only playing six games at Spectrum Stadium instead of seven and are losing their biggest home game of the year against Georgia Tech.
Translation: Hurricane Irma has literally blown UCF’s athletic budget . ...
SHORT STUFF: And one last thing about UCFGeorgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets should be ashamed of themselves for trying to goad UCF into playing today in Atlanta when the Knights haven’t even been able to practice for most of this week because of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. This is almost as pathetic as LSU AD Joe Alleva’s stance last year when he claimed the Gators were ducking the Tigers by canceling a game as Hurricane Matthew was bearing down on our state. …
OK, all of you people out there who actually outperformed me in the first week of the Sentinel’s “Beat Bianchi” NFL picks contest, can I let you in on a little secret? I was actually pulling a “Hennigan” and tanking last week in order to give you guys false hope for the future (sound familiar, Magic fans?). This week, it’s on! If you want to go mano-a-mano against me in the weekly contest for all sorts of great prizes, go to OrlandoSentinel.com/BeatBianchi … And as long as we’re talking about picking games …
MIKEY LIKES: Gators over Vols by 3, Clemson over Louisville by 5, USC over Texas by 7, Titans over Jags by 6, Bucs over Bears by 12, Dolphins over Chargers by 2, OrlandoUnited over Hurricane Irma by collaboration, community and camaraderie … Hey, did you see where former Magic GM Rob
Hennigan was re-hired as an assistant GM by his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who five years from now will be worse than they were when he arrived? … Here’s all you need to know about the sinking state of NASCAR: In the wake of Dale Earnhardt Jr. retiring after this season and Danica Patrick losing her ride, the common question is how is the sport going to survive the loss of its two most popular drivers? But I have a better question: How is it that two racers who never really won anything are the sport’s most popular drivers? Can you imagine if the two most popular players in the NBA were Elfrid Payton and Kelly Olynyk ?… Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly has the winning percentage of Butch Jones and the arrogance of Nick Saban. …The polarizing and volatile mixture of sports, politics and social media officially jumped the shark this week when ESPN SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill and President Donald Trump got into a Twitter war. Somewhere, Ronald Reagan and John Saunders are just shaking their heads. … Stat of the week: The Cleveland Indians have won 22 games in a row; the Cleveland Browns have 22 wins in the last six years. … Alex Morgan scores whenever Dom Dwyer wants to. …
How much has Tom Coughlin changed the “culture” of the Jaguars organization? Former Jag and FOT (Friend of Tom) Don Davey said Friday on our Open Mike radio show that when Coughlin took over the football operations after last season, he even “met with the secretaries in the ticket office and changed the way they answered the phone. And he met with the team chef about how the meals are prepared. He’s that meticulous about every single detail of the organization.” … Can you believe the new iPhone X is going to cost $1,000? Apparently it has a face-recognizing infrared camera and a playcalling app for Doug Nussmeier.
LAST WORD: “The New York Jets are 1000-to-1 long shots to win the Super Bowl. That means if you bet just one dollar, you will lose just one dollar.” — Jimmy Fallon