UCF fans fund billboard challenging Alabama to a battle of national champions

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• Fans of the UCF Knights paid to put up a billboard in Alabama congratulating the Crimson Tide on their national championship victory and challenging the team to a home-and-home series.
• The Knights declared themselves national champions after finishing the 2017 as the only undefeated team in the country, making fans all the more eager to challenge Bama for what they believe to be their title.
• Adding games against the Crimson Tide to their schedule would also be beneficial for the Knights in that strengthening their schedule would help to ensure that they don’t get left out of the playoff should the team go undefeated again.

The UCF Knights finished the 2017 college football season with an undefeated record, beating Auburn in the Peach Bowl 34-27 to move to 13-0 on the year.

As the only team to finish the year undefeated, the Knights declared themselves national champions, going as far as to raise a banner, hold a parade, and send the team to Disney World to celebrate.

Now that the celebrations are done and the team is looking towards next season, they want Bama.

A group of Knights fans raised money online to pay for a billboard in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, congratulating the Crimson Tide on their win in the national championship and challenging them to a home-and-home series with the AAC power house.

Knights fans are looking to strengthen the team’s schedule in future seasons to ensure that they’re team can’t be left out of the playoff should they run the table again in an upcoming season. Per ESPN:

“We felt like this year’s team could run with anyone in the country, and the Peach Bowl win [over Auburn] proved that,” said Sean Barakett, who added that he contributed $100 toward the campaign. “All we needed was a chance to play harder opponents.”

Challenging Bama has long been a tradition of fans that believe their team doesn’t get the respect it deserves on a national scale, with signs reading “WE WANT BAMA!” seen at almost every stop ESPN’s “College Gameday” makes throughout the season.

But UCF’s case for a home-and-home is stronger than most — the team finished the season undefeated, and beat the only team to beat the Tide in 2017 when they took down Auburn in the Peach Bowl. Additionally, the Knights are undefeated all time against Alabama, winning the only meeting between the teams in 2000, 40-38 in Tuscaloosa.

It’s still a long shot that Alabama would accept the offer, but if Nick Saban and company want to prove themsevels champions beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is likely as good an opportunity as they’ll get.