{"id":100515,"date":"2019-07-16T10:10:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T14:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=100515"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:44:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T20:44:02","slug":"ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ football team, who has won 25 of its last 26 games and back-to-back American Athletic Conference Championships, has been selected as the favorite to win the league title again in the conference\u2019s 2019 preseason media poll.<\/p>\n

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ received 12 of a possible 30 votes to win the league title, while the Knights were listed first on 19 ballots in the East Division race.<\/p>\n

It marks just the second time the Knights have been picked to win the conference. Last year Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ took those high expectations and lived up to them, finishing the regular season 11-0 and defeating Memphis in the 2018 title game.<\/p>\n

Memphis was the media’s choice in the West Division as the Tigers received 15 first-place votes and 165 points to edge Houston in a close vote.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati was projected as the overall conference champion on eight ballots, while Memphis received six votes for the league title, while Houston was the choice on four ballots.<\/p>\n

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ finished the regular season unbeaten for the second straight season in 2018 as the Knights went on to capture their fourth American Athletic Conference championship<\/a> and advance to the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl<\/a>. The team was recognized for excellence in the classroom, as well. The Knights boasted the highest NCAA Academic Progress Rate of all bowl-bound teams in the state last season, and 43 members of the squad were recently named to the American’s All-Academic team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and finished the year ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press poll.<\/p>\n

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\u2019s 2019 season opener against Florida A&M<\/a> will kick off Thursday, Aug. 29, at Spectrum Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET. Campus will close at 2 p.m. that day, and more information about the closure, tailgating and parking will be announced closer to game day.<\/p>\n

The fourth American Athletic Conference Football Championship will be played Saturday, Dec. 7, at the home site of the division champion with the best conference record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":100519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1810,17929,4857],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-100515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-football","tag-main-site-stories","tag-ucf-athletics"],"yoast_head":"\nÂ鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-16T14:10:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T20:44:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jenna Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jenna Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jenna Lee\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\"},\"headline\":\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-16T14:10:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-23T20:44:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":331,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"football\",\"Main Site Stories\",\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Athletics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/\",\"name\":\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-16T14:10:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-23T20:44:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\"},\"description\":\"The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"At last year's conference championship game, the Knights fell behind early and rallied from a 17-point deficit to clinch their fourth American Athletic Conference trophy since joining the league in 2013.(Photo by Nick Leyva '15)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\",\"name\":\"Jenna Lee\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jenna Lee\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/je222296\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\\\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title","description":"The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title","og_description":"The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/","og_site_name":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½","article_published_time":"2019-07-16T14:10:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-23T20:44:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jenna Lee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½","twitter_site":"@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jenna Lee","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/"},"author":{"name":"Jenna Lee","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63"},"headline":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title","datePublished":"2019-07-16T14:10:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-23T20:44:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/"},"wordCount":331,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg","keywords":["football","Main Site Stories","Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Athletics"],"articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2019","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/","name":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-16T14:10:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-23T20:44:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63"},"description":"The Knights return 39 letterwinners and 13 starters from last year\u2019s team, which went 12-1 and hoisted the conference championship trophy for the second consecutive year at Spectrum Stadium.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"At last year's conference championship game, the Knights fell behind early and rallied from a 17-point deficit to clinch their fourth American Athletic Conference trophy since joining the league in 2013.(Photo by Nick Leyva '15)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Football Picked to Win Third Straight AAC Title"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63","name":"Jenna Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jenna Lee"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/je222296\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-football-picked-to-win-third-straight-aac-title\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/07\/ucf-football-championship-heupel-300x200.jpg","primary_category":26,"primary_tag":4857,"author_byline":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Athletics","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100515"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147910,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100515\/revisions\/147910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100515"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=100515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}