Knights to be honored during downtown party
UCF’s national championship celebration keeps growing.
The city of Orlando, the Downtown Development Board and UCF will host a free block party on Church Street between Orange Avenue and Garland Avenue on Monday starting at 6 p.m. It will include a pep rally and national championship recognition. Orlando Mayor
will also present the team with a key to the city.
“We are proud of Orlando’s hometown team and hope fans from across Central Florida will come out to celebrate this memorable season,” Dyer said in a news release. UCF athletics director
has led the charge to call the Knights national champions, touting their finish as the Football Bowl Subdivision’s sole undefeated team as proof they did all that was needed to win a title.
No. 12 UCF earned a 34-27 win over No. 7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl Monday, completing the first perfect season in school history. The Knights went 13-0, won the American Athletic Conference title and posted the highest graduation rate among all Football Bowl Subdivision public schools.
The Knights knocked off the Tigers, who previously earned wins over Georgia and Alabama — the two teams set to face off Monday in the College Football Playoff national title game.
White has done interviews with a wide range of local and national media outlets, including several with ESPN, arguing the Knights were unfairly excluded from the College Football Playoff semifinal games.
“As Orlando’s hometown team, we’re looking forward to celebrating with our community on Monday night,” White said in a news release announcing the block party Monday night. “Thanks to the city of Orlando and Mayor Dyer for helping make this national championship celebration special for our student-athletes and fans.”
The downtown celebration will follow a UCF football parade scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
In addition to White’s media interviews Thursday, former UCF football players in the NFL used social media to show their support for calling UCF national champs.
After pledging to pay the UCF coaching and support staff a pool of $325,000 for winning a national title, to hang a championship banner at Spectrum Stadium and to sell championship Tshirts to fans, White also promised the UCF bowl players will receive national championship rings.
The NCAA doesn’t have guidelines for determining FBS national champions. The group defers to polls to determine the winner, with the Associated Press and Amway coaches’ polls the most widely recognized ways to determine the champion. However, there are other more obscure national polls that could easily crown UCF the champion and add greater weight to the Knights’ claim they are the champions.
Regardless of the criticism UCF has received for claiming it is the national champion, White shows no signs of letting up on his title campaign. receiver a junior, said after the Auburn victory on Monday at the Peach Bowl that he has still not made a decision on his UCF future. Smith said he will speak with new head coach
before making any decision about forgoing his senior season to enter the NFL Draft.
Smith said one thing is for sure, however. He will not transfer from UCF as a graduate player to play at any other school.
“I wouldn’t transfer even though I would have one more year left and I could go anywhere I want to because I graduated,” Smith said. “UCF is my home. I love UCF until the death of me and I want to end my career as a UCF alumni, as a Knight.” UCF’s top