It may not be the thing, but it’s still kind of a thing.
Late last month, a report surfaced that a bill that would allow for the creation and printing of Florida license plates in UCF colors and a UCF logo with the words “National Champions” inscribed across the bottom had been changed in committee, an indication that the subject may have been put to bed. Tuesday, however, the bill made it out of the state’s House of Representatives -- appropriately enough, in light of the Knights’ perfect season, by a unanimous vote -- and seemingly made it out with “National Champions” attached to it.
A Florida House bill which includes a UCF "National Champions*" license plate passes 113-0.
— Joe Reedy (@joereedy) March 5, 2018
Not long after, though, it was further explained that the legislation, which is part of a larger overall transportation bill, would actually have as part of it a license plate that declares UCF as “Undefeated Champions.”
We have a couple updates to today's UCF License Plate story ...
— Joe Reedy (@joereedy) March 6, 2018
1. The plate has been updated.
2. If you live in Florida and want an Auburn, Alabama or Georgia plate, you can get one of those too. pic.twitter.com/TbIRuO3XbH
That certainly rings much truer than the previous claim as the Knights won all 13 of the games they played this past season and won the American Athletic Conference title. Before this is enacted, though, it must pass through the state Senate before Gov. Rick Scott could sign off on it.
The passage by the state’s House is just another headline for a football program that’s been making plenty of them on and off the field for months.
UCF kicked up quite the ruckus by very proudly and extremely loudly proclaiming themselves national champions after capping off a perfect 13-0 season by defeating Auburn, which beat both of the College Football Playoff game participants. The football program went so far as to pay its assistants, now at Nebraska after following head coach Scott Frost out the door, the title bonuses they were entitled to contractually, with Disney World throwing the team a championship parade, the NFL Pro Bowl feting their accomplishments and even the state’s legislature egging the movement on.
