Knights deserve to be called national champions

In the wake of the greatest team accomplishment in the history of Orlando sports, what a perfect time to change the name of our hometown university.

With my proposed new name, there will be no more confusion moving forward on whether to refer to the university by its official designation or by the abbreviated version — UCF — school officials prefer for branding purposes.

Unlike the old name — University of Central Florida — the new moniker will have no directional school connotation and be perfect branding when the national broadcasters insist on identifying the university by its official name. UCF: Undefeated Champions Forever. Celebrate it, Orlando. Commemorate it. Cheer it. Revere it. You are national champions no matter what the College Football Playoff Cartel says. Go ahead and let Georgia and Alabama compete in the Cartel’s exclusionary All-SEC Consolation Bowl in Atlanta on Monday night. We all know the true champs were crowned in Atlanta a week ago when the nation’s only undefeated team — the UCF Knights — defeated big, bad SEC powerhouse Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. COMMENTARY

Yes, the same Auburn Tigers who defeated both teams playing in the Consolation Bowl, steamrolling both Georgia (40-17) and Alabama (26-14) late in the season.

The same Auburn team which, despite three losses, was shamefully ranked five spots ahead of the unbeaten Knights in the College Football Playoff Cartel’s final regular-season poll.

“It wasn’t right — watching the committee every week sitting in a room and deciding this two-loss team must be better than UCF or that three-loss team must be better than UCF,” coach Scott Frost said after the Peach Bowl. “It looked like a conscious effort [to keep UCF out of the playoff ]. Our guys deserve everything they get, and they deserve more credit from the committee than what they got.”

Kudos to Frost for speaking out against the Cartel immediately after the game and to UCF athletics director Danny White for doggedly keeping UCF’s championship narrative in the national spotlight in the days following the game.

This team — this amazing, hair-raising, trail-blazing team — deserves to be called national champions.

And this town — this beleaguered, bedraggled, bedeviled sports town — will take a championship any way we can get one.

The Orlando Magic have sunk into the abyss of irrelevance, mired in a sixth consecutive season of devastating and debilitating losing. Every year Orlando City promises us they will make