Knights, Gators to learn their bowl fates today

The No. 8 UCF Knights know they will at the very least get an invitation to a New Year’s Six Access Bowl today after defeating Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game.

The Knights, who extended the nation’s longest win streak to 25 games, likely lack the strength of schedule needed to earn a College Football Playoff semifinal bid and a chance to play for a national title.

They will officially learn their fate during the ESPN broadcast of the final College Football Playoff rankings Sunday.

The top four semifinal teams will be unveiled at 12:30 p.m.

The full top 25 rankings will follow at 2 p.m.

And the final New Year’s Six bowl assignments will be unveiled at 3 p.m.

In addition to UCF, the Florida Gators are in the mix for a New Year’s Six bowl.

While it would be intriguing for the Knights and the Gators to face off in the

Peach Bowl, the Atlanta game gets first pick and is expected to pass on picking the Knights during back-to-back seasons.

Instead, the Peach Bowl is projected to pick UF and the Fiesta Bowl most likely will welcome UCF. The Knights could play LSU, another strong SEC team.

The Orlando bowl lineups are expected to be set no later than 5 p.m., with six teams slated to spend bowl season in Central Florida.

UCF coach Josh Heupel has largely brushed off College Football Playoff rankings, insisting his team instead focus on going 1-0 each week.

But after UCF’s dramatic rally for a win over Memphis Saturday, Heupel made his case during a postgame interview airing nationwide on ABC.

“You look at what this program’s done for two straight years,” Heupel said. “This team’s got the heart of a champion. They deserve to go prove it on the field.”