By JUSTIN KANE
The University of Central Florida should no longer have to play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. They should be playing in the Fiesta or Orange Bowl as the Big East Champions.
The Big East conference added Texas Christian University form the Mountain West Conference who coming off their best season ever after being the Big 10 champion Wisconsin 21-19 in the Rose Bowl. With that addition the Big East now has nine football teams and 17 basketball teams, yes 17. With the odd number it’s obvious that the Big East should add another team to even it out. The best option: UCF.
UCF is coming off its best ever football season finishing 11-3 and beating Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. They won the Conference-USA for the third time in its six-year history. They are ranked in the Bowl Championship Series, the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Poll for the first time in school history. No Big East football team is ranked in any of those polls. UCF had eight games games televised on national TV this year and went 6-2 in those games.
In basketball the Big East has eight teams ranked in the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll; with UCF they’d have nine. UCF is ranked 18th in the Coaches Poll and is off to their best start in school history. The Knights are 14-1 with key wins over then-ranked 16th Florida and Miami. They also bring national attention to their team with Marcus Jordan, yes he is the son of Michael, who averages 16.7 points per game and an average of two Jordan-esque plays per game. Oh and they just picked up the number fourth ranked center in all of the country.
So Big East, why not pick UCF? They will give you championships, money and a greater fan base here in Orlando. They are the most valuable school that is not an Automatic-Qualifying conference and they are the best choice to expand your conference.
And UCF if you get invited you better say yes. The Big East can give you money and better recruits as well as more national attention.
So UCF and the Big East, have a cup of coffee and work on an agreement, this needs to happen soon.