May 15, 2011
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By Marc Daniels
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - I love a great sports debate. What team is the best? What record will never be broken? What streak will never be touched? Which player is the best? It's part of what makes sports so great.
Recently, I watched a television show on Babe Ruth. Veteran sportscaster Bob Costas explained why Ruth should be considered the greatest player of all-time. There are clearly many statistics to back that claim up and there are films of Ruth's performances to see how good he was and how adored he was by fans. But how can Costas know Ruth was the greatest? Ruth's last game at Yankee Stadium was in 1934. Costas was born in 1952. He never saw him play.
I am not picking on Costas, a well-respected baseball historian, but pointing out that in order for me to truly compare great players or teams, I'd have to at least be able to claim I've seen those that I am debating about.
I would have loved to have seen Ruth play, but it would be 33 years after his final game that I came into this world. I would have loved to have seen Willie Mays, Jim Brown, Jesse Owens, Ben Hogan, Rocky Marciano and other sports greats all in their prime. But their primes came long before my days as a sports fan.
Which brings me to today and the fact that in order to witness a great moment or be part of something special, you have to actually exist.
Over the last few months I have been asked by a lot of UCF fans about possible future conference affiliation. It's a hot topic among followers of the Knights and there is nothing wrong talking about. UCF officials have consistently stated they are proud members of Conference USA. Because of the ever-changing world of college athletics, UCF will always be prepared in the event an automatic qualifying BCS conference came along to offer affiliation.
Recently, the Justice Department sent a letter to the NCAA asking why there is no playoff in the top level of college football, also known as the Football Bowl Subdivision. I don't get enough space in this column to try and answer that question, but I do get enough space to explain why UCF would not get left out if the day ever came and there was a playoff.
The explanation dates back to 1932, 1953 and 1963.
In 1932, the Southeastern Conference was formed over a two-day period. On Dec. 8 and 9 of that year, 13 members of the Southern Conference formed a new league. Today, 10 of those original members remain. The University of the South, Georgia Institute of Technology (today known as Georgia Tech) and Tulane would leave the league and eventually Arkansas and South Carolina joined to makeup the dozen members that exist today.
In 1953, the Atlantic Coast Conference was formed. Like the SEC, it lost some original members and added new ones to eventually get to the current 12 schools that make up the league.
Anyone want to guess what year UCF was established?
If you guessed 1963, you would be correct. It would be 1979 when UCF fielded its first football team. It was 1996 when the Knights played their first season at the top level of football.
UCF never got a chance to be a member of two of the most tradition rich and financially rewarding conferences in the country because the school did not exist when the group of visionaries got together to form the leagues.
Today, UCF is a thriving university that has a thriving athletics program. Its facilities are as good as programs that have been playing 50 years longer. Its commitment to grow its program can never be challenged with the building of its on-campus stadium and arena, practice fields, player training facilities and performance on the field of its teams.
UCF's problem is not that it sits in a top 20 television market or has the second largest student enrollment in the country or plays football in a state that takes the game really serious. UCF's only problem is that it did not exist in 1932 or 1953.
If everyone started over today, how would UCF's candidacy look today? If everyone was an independent and a group of schools decided to meet one weekend to form a league made up of schools in the southeastern part of the country or a group of schools in the atlantic region, who would get an invite?
We will not drop names, but how many current members of some of the biggest conferences in the country would have a hard time getting re-invited to the league they are in? How many have areas losing population, struggling economies, decreased enrollment and sub-par facilities? How many of these programs ride the cape of other league member's success and therefore receive millions and millions in television money without competing themselves?
In the SEC, television money is split equally. You can go winless year-after-year and still get the same money as the program that wins conference and national titles. As I have said for a long time, there are SEC schools that make about $20 million a year from the league's television contract.
So UCF continues to compete for C-USA titles and is always prepared in the event a conference that generates more revenue comes along to show interest regarding possible membership.
If the powers who run major college football decide to have a playoff, my guess is that there will be a restructuring of the current membership of the Football Bowl Subdivision. The powers will likely take all existing members of the country's biggest conferences. But they will likely look to those schools that make a commitment to compete at the highest level that do not currently play in the "bigger" conferences.
Schools that draw less than 10,000 fans will likely always draw less than 10,000 a game and likely never will commit the resources to grow their programs to levels where UCF has grown. In a short time, UCF has average attendance that rivals many BCS schools and its investment in its football program, in some cases, is greater than some BCS schools.
The day for a college football playoff may still be many years away, but UCF remains on a path that keeps it on course to be part of whatever landscape develops. Because after all, we can't turn the calendar back to 1932 or 1953, UCF can only write its own history.
Knights notes and more: Prayers and thoughts to the family and friends of former UCF baseball player Josh Siebenaler.... After an impressive performance at UAB, baseball plays a big non-conference game at Stetson this week. The Hatters are considered a candidate to host a NCAA Regional. The Knights then close out the regular season at home against Marshall Thursday, Friday and Saturday...Final thought: Celebrated a birthday this past weekend. Someone asked me my age. My answer? "I'm a bad poker hand...A pair of fours."
Marc Daniels' From the Press Box runs several times per month on UCFAthletics.com. Listen to Marc during UCF football, men's basketball and baseball radio broadcasts on the UCF Sports Network. Each weekday, Marc hosts The Beat of Sports on ESPN Radio 1080 in Orlando.