Idle Knights climb to No. 9 in both polls

UCF moved up a spot in both the Associated Press and coaches’ top 25 polls this week.

The Knights were No. 9 in both polls after a bye weekend. The program is riding the nation’s longest win streak spanning 20 games and will host Temple Thursday night.

It’s the highest the program has been ranked since the final rankings of last season.

Florida (6-2). meanwhile, dropped four spots to No. 13 in the AP poll and to No. 14 in the coaches’ poll after the Gators suffered a 36-17 loss to Georgia Saturday in Jacksonville.

Elsewhere in the state, Miami and USF dropped out of the polls after losses.

Three teams from Group of 5 conferences entered the AP rankings for the first time — Houston (17), Utah State (18) and Fresno State (20).

The highest-ranked conference champion in the College Football Playoff rankings from the Group of Five leagues earns a spot in a New Year’s Six Access Bowl. See the complete AP and coaches’ top 25 polls on

The first selection committee playoff rankings of the season will be released Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.

While UCF fans have argued the Knights deserve higher rankings, coach Josh Heupel said the team isn’t focused on any potential snubs.

“I really still do believe at the end of the year that they’re going to look at who we played, how we played, gone undefeated if you run the table and then that will take care of itself,” Heupel said earlier this month. “At the end of the day, we’re a long ways away from that conversation inside of our team, inside of our building.

“We can only control what we can control, which is our preparation today and how we go play. … At the end of the day, people are going to look at this conference, look at who we’ve played, look at the crossover scores and I think we’ll be where we want to be if we handle our business.”