Sorry, UConn, rivalries are not built by just creating a trophy.
Maybe UCF is just a target these days. There was even a time when UCF was just begging to be someone’s rival. At least they had geography and actual hatred. UCF never was keeping Connecticut out of a conference or preventing their own potential growth.
No, UCF might have at one time been knocking on the door of USF and demanding rivalry status. And there was real animus between the two schools. Like real hatred. Not manufactured hatred.
It only took becoming conference rivals, plus a few tight games for the rivalry to gain legitimacy in both teams’ eyes. Now, even, USF is facing their nightmare of being envious of UCF and their position. The Bulls are the afterthought and the Knights are the dominant program in the rivalry.
That game has not lost any of its luster. If anything, both schools seem ready to up the rivalry further.
The game has been played on Friday night for several years on Thanksgiving weekend. Both schools, looking for notoriety and attention, have made the move to put the game on the big night.
UCF-USF will be played on Thanksgiving night this year.
The game was originally to be played on Black Friday. But it would have been scheduled for Black Friday afternoon. It is not a prime time for the game.
Thanksgiving night though will put the game in competition with NFL football. But it is still a prime spot as potentially the college football game of the night.
The Knights and Bulls, amazingly, have played just six games against each other with USF leading 4-2. The Knights though have shed the little brother label by dominating last year and winning on a last-second catch two years ago at Bright House Networks Stadium as UCF was on its way to the Fiesta Bowl.
More than anything, that catch and that moment has given USF to plenty of envy. It feels like they are the ones down in this rivalry.
At least it has some legitimacy. The teams want to play each other now and make the game a big thing. Putting the game at night on Thanksgiving certainly adds some spice to the matchup. If this becomes tradition with the game moving to Tampa next year, the stakes certainly get higher.
The UCF-USF rivalry was something born out of what rivalries should be born out of — geographical rivalries, jealousy and fear. The Knights and Bulls have a real hatred developing even if the Bulls took a while to recognize the rivalry had to exist.
It certainly exists now. And a Thanksgiving game only makes it a bigger deal.
