Undefeated UCF declares itself ‘2017 National Champions,’ will hang championship banner

With a 34-27 victory over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day, the University of Central Florida capped off an undefeated 13-0 season. 

However, the Knights clearly wanted more.

The team’s official Twitter account has declared UCF the “2017 National Champions.” Additionally, UCF athletic director Danny White has announced plans to hold a parade for the team, as well as hang a championship banner at Spectrum Stadium, the Knights’ home field.

UCF AD Danny White says #UCF will be hanging a National Championship banner at Spectrum Stadium.

— 96.9 The Game (@969thegame) January 3, 2018

Ranked No. 12 by the College Football Playoff selection committee, the unblemished Knights did not have an opportunity to compete for a national title. UCF does not play in a Power 5 conference and before the victory over No. 7 Auburn, had just one win over a ranked team, No. 20 Memphis.

After the Peach Bowl win, UCF coach Scott Frost voiced his displeasure that his team did not get a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals. 

“It wasn’t right,” Frost said. “I was watching [the College Football Playoff selection show] every week, the committee sitting in a room and deciding that this two-loss team must be better than UCF because UCF is in the American [Athletic Conference], or this three-loss team must be better than UCF. It looked like a conscious effort to me to make sure that they didn’t have a problem if they put us too high and a couple teams ahead of us lost.”

While selection committee officials defended their rankings, saying they “respected UCF,” the Knights certainly disagreed. 

“I don’t think our kids should be penalized because we weren’t respected by the College Football Playoff committee nor should our program be penalized because we weren’t around 20 or 30 years ago when people were claiming national championships left and right,” White said, per ESPN. “We’re trying to build our program and we feel very strongly as the only undefeated team and having beat Auburn, who beat both teams competing for the national championship, that we have an extremely sound case to claim the crown.”