I posted this in another thread a little while back.
Simple fact is, it's a myth that the big boys don't want to schedule UCF. See below. In addition, their non-con schedule next year includes Stanford and Pitt. In 2020, UCF will play GA Tech and UNC. In 2021 and 2022, they will play Louisville.
Yeah they schedule the games far in advance, so they didn't know that UNC and Louisville would fall off a cliff. But Just because their planned schedule didn't turn out as good as they thought doesn't mean they should still be rewarded for it. If you win every game but your schedule sucks, its too bad you do not deserve to get into the CFP over teams who have a 11-0 or 10-1 record but have 4-5 wins that are as good/better than your BEST win. The CFP committee will never reward playing a ****ty non-con schedule and if you are not a P5 team you need to go out of your way to prove you are as good as the best P5 teams. If UCF thinks they are playoff material, then don't schedule 2 games against P5 and then 2 games against Florida A&M, FAU, South Carolina St etc. You should be playing 3-4 P5 teams and 2 of them better be solid/bowl eligible. Overall, UCF has absolutely no argument for being in the CFP this year. And that is before their QB went down which makes the argument moot as well - if you think the committee would ignore their absolute best player being out for the year, I don't know what to tell you.
UCF games vs power 5 teams since 2010:
2010: NC State (loss), Kansas State (loss), Georgia (bowl, win)
2011: Boston College (win)
2012: Ohio State (loss), Missouri (loss)
2013: Penn State (win), South Carolina (loss), Louisville (win), Baylor (bowl, win)
2014: Penn State (loss), Missouri (loss), NC State (bowl, loss)
2015: Stanford (loss), South Carolina (loss)
2016: Michigan (loss), Maryland (loss)
2017: Maryland (win), Georgia Tech (cancelled), Auburn (bowl, win)
2018: UNC (cancelled), Pittsburgh (win)
overall record vs P5 teams since 2010: 8-12