Well, the hysteria of UCF claiming a 2017 National Championship after an undefeated season may have reached critical mass. Now, Alabama head coach Nick Saban is weighing in and, spoiler alert, he’s none too impressed.
“If you honor and respect the system that we have, (despite) some of the imperfections that you understand that the system has, then you wouldn’t do something out of respect for the system that we have,” Saban told USA TODAY Sports. “I guess anybody has the prerogative to claim anything. But self-proclaimed is not the same as actually earning it.
“And there’s probably a significant number of people who don’t respect people who make self-proclaimed sort of accolades for themselves.”
“We’ve only had one undefeated team, and that is really hard to do,” Saban said. “So, I have a tremendous amount of respect for their team and what they were able to accomplish. … And they can make every claim that they should have been in the playoff. I get that. But we have a system, and it’s not fair to the people who went through the system and earned their way playing really, really good teams — I mean really good teams — and really tough games. It’s not quite fair to them for somebody else just to decide to (claim a national championship).
Dead. Killed ’em dead. R.I.P. UCF. Saban has had a hell of a Spring when it comes to murdering people where they stand. But, this is uncharacteristically savage, even for him. The entire city of Orlando may be nothing but scorched Earth after that bomb.
For the most part, I get it. This thing has gone a little too far, to the point where even Scott Frost has said if he was still at UCF, he’d have a hard time getting behind this thing. And, it’s not like Saban is flat out lying here – there’s a lot of truth in what he’s saying.
But, at the same time, I think there’s a deeper meaning behind all of this. UCF simply never had the opportunity to compete for a National Championship. And, if you don’t get that after an undefeated season, when will you get it? I’ve said before – if none of these schools are going to get a shot at the playoffs, then why don’t they just secede from the FBS and have their own league and National Championship? It’s what I’d do, and maybe this uproar is the first step towards that happening.
When will the American Conference EVER compete with the SEC on a top-to-bottom level? Does that day ever come? I don’t know. But, if more of the little guys keep making noise like this, maybe it initiates some sort of change. I’m a fan of an eight-team playoff – get your power five champs in, a ‘group of five’ representative, and two wild cards, and you’re set. In that scenario, UCF gets in, they at least get the opportunity, and none of this “National Championship” nonsense ever happens.
So, is this thing really about 2017 and who was the best team in the country (which undoubtedly was Alabama, by the way)? Or, is it more about giving the little guy a chance to prove himself? I think it’s more the latter than the former. Regardless, I think I’d be hard-pressed to not be embarrassed by this if I were a UCF fan.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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