July 10, 2011
="" alt="Knight Head" border="0" class="imported"> Read the Knights Insider | ="" alt="Twitter Logo" border="0" class="imported">Follow us on Twitter | ="" alt="Facebook Logo" border="0" class="imported">Get social with the Knights on Facebook
By Marc Daniels
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - As sports fans we are obsessed with polls. We use them in many ways. We accept polls to tell us who the best teams are in some sports throughout a season. Polls sometimes tell us how to act, how to feel, how to eat and how to vote, which can be very dangerous. But a recent poll told us how passionate we are about the Knights compared to other college football fans.
Public Policy Polling is a North Carolina-based company that specializes in polling (I bet you could have figured that one out). A recent survey asked those in our state who was their favorite college football team. UCF finished third with 11 percent choosing the Knights. Florida topped the poll with 30 percent and Florida State was second with 19 percent.
The Gators and Seminoles finishing 1-2 is not surprising but UCF finishing ahead of Miami, who had nine percent, might be to many fans. Some school located in the Tampa area finished fifth in the poll with six percent, just ahead of FAU who had five percent.
Before we go insane and celebrate, a few facts to be honest about the poll. The poll is based on the responses of 848 people, not 4 million. The poll was not sports exclusive. In fact the first question pollsters were asked was "Do you support or oppose Paul Ryan's proposal for reforming Medicare?" My first thought to that was who does Paul Ryan play for? Paul Ryan is a congressman from Wisconsin and does not play for any Florida team or the Wisconsin Badgers.
Questions 5-7 of the survey dealt with sports. Question five asked pollsters if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of LeBron James and the leading choice was 54 percent who were not sure. Question six asked who their favorite pro team was and the Bucs, with 17 percent edged out the Dolphins and Jaguars, who both had 16 percent. By the way, the Magic finished sixth in this question and that's with Dwight Howard on the team.
Question seven is the college football question and some critics of the poll's findings (one group of fans to the middle left of our state) believe UCF got the benefit of being listed first alphabetically as Central Florida. Well that same group should be glad they didn't ask pollsters about correct geographic names as well because I'm not sure that would have gone well for them.
So what does the poll mean? It may not mean very much at all since the poll was not singling out college football fans, but just those in the state of Florida. That likely means there is a wide range of fans from very passionate to those who have no idea if Jeff Godfrey is a quarterback or a congressman from Wisconsin. But it does show that the brand of UCF football has grown and continues to beyond the boundaries of Orlando. It also shows that the passionate fan base of UCF is being heard. That passion has forced both the mainstream media and the new age media to pay more attention and cover the team because of your demands.
Florida has been playing football longer than anyone in the state and FSU and Miami have been around a long time. As we have stated, and recently wrote about, UCF's support base is still relatively new and growing at a very respectable rate. Polls like this can be what you want them to be. And to be honest and fair, that school "over there" has had very respectable fan support in their brief time playing football, which is fewer years than UCF.
But keep this in mind about this poll, they tried to get a balance of voters across the state. That makes UCF's third-place finish impressive. The question of favorite college team also saw 18 percent of those surveyed say "not sure" as an answer. That means a few more wins and fancy Jeff Godfrey moves and the Knights might even close the gap on that team from up in the left corner of the state.
Knights notes and more: More numbers from the poll show 53 percent of those surveyed were women and 60 percent were over the age of 46...Conference USA does not have a media preseason poll, but the Tulsa World asked select media members in each team's town to vote. The poll is supposed to be anonymous so me telling you that I voted UCF to win the East Division is not something I am supposed to reveal...Final thought: How instant can the coffee be if it takes me more than three minutes to boil the water?
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.