Unlike UCF, Vols AD Danny White not willing to proclaim FSU as national champs

[ad_1]

Running off at the typewriter. …

Just for the record, former UCF and current Tennessee athletic director Danny White says he will not proclaim the Florida State Seminoles as the national champions should Michigan and Washington lose in the College Football Playoff and FSU beats Georgia in the Orange Bowl to finish as the only unbeaten team in the country.

“I don’t know if it’s my place to proclaim anything for them,” White said and laughed during a conversation on our radio show earlier this week. “But I certainly would do it again 100 times over if I was in the [AD] chair like I was at UCF back in 2017.”

White became a legend at UCF and a lightning rod to the rest of the college football world in 2017-18 when he famously self-declared the Knights as the national champions after they beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl to finish as the only unbeaten team in the country. It certainly added ammo to White’s case that Auburn had beaten the two teams that played for the national championship that season — Georgia and Alabama.

I believe White’s national championship declaration was one of the greatest marketing ploys in college football history. It raised national awareness of UCF’s program and helped the Knights get into the Big 12. In addition, I also don’t think it’s a stretch to believe that White’s constant prodding and poking and carping and complaining about the exclusivity and inequity of a four-team College Football “Invitational” factored into the playoff being expanded to 12 teams beginning next season.

“Obviously, I felt bad for Florida State … but I felt bad for the committee as well,” White said of the undefeated Seminoles being left out of the four-team playoff in favor of one-loss Texas and Alabama. “It’s unfortunate that, in the last year of this format, the committee was…

[ad_2]

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/unlike-ucf-vols-ad-danny-231500657.html

Author : Orlando Sentinel

Publish date : 2023-12-14 23:15:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

Scroll to Top