First, Utah busted the Bowl Championship Series as a school from a non-automatic qualifying conference.
Then, Boise State had multiple turns, followed by Texas Christian.
Now, Central Florida is hoping to follow suit.
The reigning Conference USA champions are coming off the best season in school history. Coach George O'Leary is optimistic the Knights will be able to keep their momentum going into 2011.
O'Leary spoke to about 40 UCF fans at Cadillac Saab of Orange Park on Wednesday night. The UCF faithful have a great deal to be excited about. The Knights won a school-record number of games, going 11-3 last season, and earned their first bowl victory, beating Georgia 10-6 in the Liberty Bowl.
"A lot of positive things are happening at UCF right now, said O'Leary, 64, who is entering his eighth year at UCF.
"Last year was a great season for the fans, alumni and school, but it's a new year now. To sustain BCS overtures, you have to be consistent every year."
So can UCF enter the BCS picture? The Knights lost 19 seniors, but they have capable players returning, including sophomore quarterback Jeff Godfrey, junior safety Kemal Ishmael and junior defensive end Troy Davis.
The non-conference schedule isn't too daunting, with the two toughest games coming at home against Boston College on Sept. 10 and on the road against BYU on Sept. 23. UCF will travel to Southern Miss, the lone conference foe to defeat the Knights last season. Two of the teams that defeated UCF last season, North Carolina State and Kansas State, are off the schedule.
"Our main focus every year is to win the conference championship," O'Leary said. "We have a couple of non-conference games in Boston College and BYU that we feel have noise factors. But those will be very tough games."
UCF is hoping not to have to state its BCS case as a non-automatic qualifying school for much longer. The university is actively seeking to move into a conference with an automatic BCS bid for the champion, with the Big East looking like the most viable suitor. The Big East recently expanded to nine teams by adding TCU and is actively searching for a 10th team. Villanova has been rumored to be the conference's primary choice, but the Wildcats aren't currently playing in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Villanova would have to undergo the extensive process of moving up in classification.
"UCF is doing everything it can possibly do," O'Leary said. "Conference USA has been very good for us. But you have to look at what's best for the university and the football program. In today's economy, with the size of the checks coming out of those BCS games and the television contracts, those with conference affiliations to those games are in an outstanding situation."
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