They didn't play the game, they shouldn't make the claim - UCF should not give themselves the "National Champions" title.

The University of Central Florida should not be allowed to claim to be the “National Champions” because they didn’t win the 2018 National Championship game. They claim the title “National Champions” because of their undefeated season and Peach Bowl win over The University of Auburn, who beat the real National Champions, the University of Alabama.

We, the fans of college football, call upon the NCAA to ban the University of Central Florida from claiming to be “National Champions”. There have been many teams in years prior to have had undefeated seasons but not play in the real National Championship game because of their lack of a strength of schedule, which is a key factor in deciding who will participate in the championship game. For example: Boise State in 2006 and 2009 (with a legendary game against Oklahoma featuring the Statue of Liberty play to win it), Utah on several occasions (Utah went on to beat Alabama in the Sugar bowl in 2008), Texas Christian University in 2010, and even Rutgers on several occasions. The similarities between all these teams is that they went undefeated, but did not make it to the national championship game because of their easier schedules than the teams that made it to the National Championship game. Even after Utah beat Alabama, and Boise State beat Oklahoma, none of them claimed to be national champions because they knew you had to win the National Championship game in order to be the National Champions. Even UCF’s head coach for that season, Scott Frost doesn’t agree with the logic, Frost said “...But at the end of the day, the playoff system is that the national champion is the team that wins the playoff”. He also said “All I’ll say is if we had stayed there, I would have had a hard time getting behind it..”. So, in conclusion, the national championship is something that should be earned through making it to the playoff and playing in the national championship, and just claiming it because of a successful season is immature and not fair to the teams that earned it.

An undefeated season is not an easy goal to obtain. Going 13 and 0 after being 0 and 12 two seasons ago, and beating ranked teams like USF, Memphis, and the powerhouse Auburn, is a huge achievement for Scott Frost and UCF’s team. But just because they did this does not give them the right to declare themselves national champions, because they didn’t win the national championship game. They have every right to celebrate their great season, which is what they should do. They should replace their “National Champions” banner in their stadium with a banner commemorating their incredible 13-0 redemption season. They should focus on the things they really did, not the things they didn’t.