UCF suddenly became the hot topic on Austin, Tex., sports radio this morning.
Chip Brown and Sean Adams host a morning talk show called the "Bottom Line" on 1300 The Zone and one of their first guests of the day was John McClain, longtime NFL writer from the Houston Chronicle. McClain talked about why University of Houston would be a great fit in the Big 12 and then voiced his opinion that UCF should join the Cougars.
McClain explained that he visited UCF on two occasions prior to the 2014 NFL Draft, covering quarterback Blake Bortles and his rise on franchise boards. He said he was sold even further after reading Mike Bianchi's recent column in the Orlando Sentinel.
"I was stunned," McClain said. "I was on campus twice and was so impressed. I didn't know anything about UCF. Mike's column was very eye opening."
After the name drop, Brown and Adams' producer immediately got in touch with UCF, who quickly set up an interview with head coach Scott Frost, who was attending the American Media Day in Rhode Island. The station played UCF's fight song coming back from a commercial break.
The questions mostly centered about Frost's expectations in Orlando and why UCF would make a good candidate to join the Big 12.
"First of all, our football team is not going to be focused (on Big 12 expansion)," Frost began. "Our football team is going to be focused on taking steps toward making UCF a dominating football team again. But in my six months at UCF I see absolutely unlimited potential in this place. We're situated in Orlando, which is the fastest-growing large city in America. To me, Austin and Orlando are two of the very top college towns in the country. Orlando and Tampa combined would be the fourth-largest media market in America, which I think would be an asset to any conference. Access to TV market as well as access to Florida recruiting. A lot of people don't know, but we have the largest undergraduate enrollment in the United States and we'll soon have one of the bigger if not biggest alumni bases in the country. All those things together, the recruiting area in Florida, to me gives UCF unlimited potential.
"If people look at things from a big-picture perspective, and not just what the record was last year, I don't think anybody can match UCF. It's my job to make UCF a dominant program. With the advantages we have against other teams in our league, I think that's where we should be."
The interview was fairly brief, but Frost added the biggest thing that appealed to him about the job was the access to talent. He wants to win and says it's a lot easier to do that when you're "smack dab in the middle" of the best recruiting state in the nation.
"With where we're situated, in the near future we'll be able to roll out a team that can compete with anyone," Frost said.
After the interview, co-host Sean Adams mentioned that he recently met some local UCF alums who have a fairly large Austin alumni group. He has visited UCF several times and was familiar with the work of Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport which is based at UCF.
Chip Brown added that he visited UCF for the 2007 Bright House Networks Stadium opener against Texas.
"It was an impressive campus," Brown said. "The stadium was shiny and new... If you subscribe to Jim Delany mindset of expansion, you go grab a major media market like Orlando. You grab the recruiting in Florida. Jim Delany would be smacking the Big 12 over the head saying, 'What are you doing?!' Go get that media market. The Big 12 is thinking about travel in a regional sense."
Adams noted the geography aspect was perhaps misplaced considering Orlando is much more accessible than other schools.
"That's the weird part to me," Adams said. "I'm looking at ease of flights, do you have to connect. In the Big Ten, everybody has to fly and then drive an hour. There are direct flights from Austin to Orlando. It's pretty easy to get in and out of."
Brown repeated that stance, saying how much easier it would be fly to Orlando than several other schools already in the Big 12, most notably West Virginia which typically requires a flight to Pittsburgh and then an hour-and-a-half bus ride.
The allure of Disney World was also mentioned, how fans could combine a road trip with a family vacation.
