UCF has tied the University of Miami for the No. 3 spot in the most popular Florida college football team poll, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released on Thursday, March 26.
UCF and Miami tied with having 10% of the votes for favorite college sports team. According to the Miami New Times, the Hurricanes have historically held this third place spot up until this year.
“UCF is a program on the rise,” Knight football fan Andrew Openshaw said. “They have shown that they can compete on the level with teams that are consistently in the top 25 every year no matter what conference they are in.”
This 10% is a large gap between the first and second ranked teams. Florida leads the poll at 23%, and Florida State comes in at No. 2 with 22%. South Florida follows UCF at 8%, Florida Atlantic at 4%, and Florida International at 1%.
“It’s no surprise to me that the Knights and Miami are tied for the No. 3 spot,” Hurricane football fan Amanda Williams said. “Miami isn’t nearly where it used to be a few years ago, and UCF is stepping up their game.”
The newfound popularity of Knights football can be attributed to its past upset over Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl in 2013, and to being American Athletic Conference Champions two years running. Also, as the largest university in the state by student size, its popularity continues to grow along with its population.
“Unfortunately for UCF, they are still in a conference that is not in the Power Five,” Openshaw said. “When they can get into one of the Power Five conferences, they have the potential to be in the conversation with UF and FSU.”
