Central Florida—land of palm trees, cool breezes, and 5 short rainstorms every afternoon. Also home to the most theme parks in the world. On Saturday, I saw several palm trees, enjoyed the cool breezes, and only endured 2 of those rainstorms. And my faithful readers will be happy to know that I successfully avoided all the theme parks. In these Covid times, only one thing gets me to travel: college football. Yeah, I know Im weird. But as long as its outdoors, and Ive got my mask, and other people are being at least somewhat responsible with distancing and I dont feel too bad.
But boy, has the 2020 college football season been weird. Tell me something I dont know, right? All the prognosticators are saying that if a team from a lower conference has a chance to make the playoffs, this year might be their best bet. With that in mind, I decided to check out the team from one of those lesser conferences—the Cincinnati Bearcats. But I didnt go anywhere near Ohio. In fact, I drove in the opposite direction. How 2020 of me!
was also this weekend, which meant that I needed to be in south Georgia for a few days. (Dont cuss at me for disregarding CDC guidelines about Thanksgiving The anniversary party, which planned and subsidized by my lonesome, had a total of 4 guests: my parents, my brother, and myself. Theyre all still planning an gathering on Thanksgiving day, however, which I will NOT be attending.) Covid safety aside, it meant that travel to Florida was going to be my best option. And even though its 2020, I can still count on fate or karma working out to help plan my football sojourns, when I choose to journey out for the sake of anthropological research. Speaking of
The University of Central Florida and the University of Cincinnati are both part of the American Athletic Conference, the AAC. Its the best caliber of the lower conferences, and you can tell how much it chafes the entire conference to be lumped in with the lesser conferences. One of their conference logos is American Power with Power stylized with a 6 in place of the E—AMERICAN POW6R—because they want to be viewed as the 6th major conference with
the Power 5, instead of the top of the heap in the Group of 5. No team from the Group of 5 has never played in the Playoff, despite UCF going undefeated in both 2017 and 2018, beating Auburn in the Peach Bowl at the end of 2017. They did finally lose to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of 2018. This season hasnt been so glorious for them, having already lost 2 games and being unranked when I chose to visit.
UCF declared themselves the 2017 National Champions in football, despite not playing in the actual National Championship game. Such is normal in the Trump era, as this kind of behavior from the very top these days. The 2017 national championship is something that the university is proud of; its not only emblazoned on and bumper stickers—they put it up in huge letters across the press box in their stadium. Which is called the Bounce House, because why not?
In some ways, I admire UCF for their boldness. But nobody—and I do mean NOBODY—outside of the UCF fan base even acknowledges their claim on the 2017 National Championship. At least
not without a little eye roll or some air quotes or a pretty overtly sarcastic tone of voice. I wonder how many UCF fans actually believe it. I imagine teams, at least the good teams, to play at the Bounce House enjoy a good laugh when they see that huge proclamation with absolutely no basis in reality. And thats what I got on Saturday night: a good team playing against the UCF Knights in the Bounce House.
Before I drag the UCF football fan base any further, Ill admit that I had a fun time in the Bounce House. Getting there, however, felt dreadful for the most part.
I stayed at my parents house on Friday night, because free hotel basically. And I hadnt seen them in over three months, because Covid basically.
