Written by Sam Foth.
The first Sunday of December is one of the most highly anticipated days of the year for college football fans, as it is the day when the College Football Playoff bracket is revealed, and bowl game matchups are announced.
UCF, finishing 5-7 in the regular season, seemingly had no chance of making it to a bowl game due to teams needing a 6-6 record to be bowl eligible. However, that hope would turn around.
It has become a trend for teams to opt out of playing a bowl game. Teams like Kansas State, Iowa State, and Notre Dame have opted out of their bowl games due to varying reasons.
When these teams decline their invitations, and if there are not enough 6-6 teams to fill all spots in bowl games, it then goes to the pool of 5-7 teams to select from.
This selection is not random either; 5-7 teams are chosen based on their Academic Progress Rate (APR), which, according to the NCAA, is a “team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term”.
Some of the top 5-7 schools based on APR this season include Rice, Auburn, Mississippi State, FSU, and UCF.
According to sources, UCF was invited to the Birmingham Bowl, which will be played in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Protective Stadium on December 29th.
UCF declined this invitation due to players already going home for the holidays and for the number of players that have already declared to enter the transfer portal, including quarterbacks Tayven Jackson and Jacurri Brown.
Florida State, Auburn, Baylor, Temple, Kansas, and Rutgers are among the other 5-7 teams that declined a bowl invitation. Ultimately, Georgia Southern will play 5-7 Appalachian State in the Birmingham Bowl.
