Sorry to clutter the board with non football stuff. I’m ready to hire, would love to find a Knight to get me into the right spacecoast property. Feel free to pm me!

Some good deals on resale tickets. Also, good face value lower level courtside sections (club too).

Just because I’m tired of all of the spam threads this week.

Wydner visited both Rutgers and UCF over the weekend, his two finalists.

UCFKnights.com:

ORLANDO – The Knights (12-6, 4-4 AAC) are back at Addition Financial Arena this weekend as the team welcome No. 7 Houston (17-2, 6-0 AAC) to town on Saturday, Jan. 28 for an 8:00 p.m. tip-off, presented by Orlando Health.

The Knights are hosting a block party ahead of the game. Fans are welcome to come out and join in on the fun from 5–7:30 p.m. at East Plaza Drive. More information on the block party can be found by clicking here.

The game will air live on ESPN2, with Marc Daniels also on the call on FM 96.9 The Game.

It hasn't been long since UCF took down a top-10 ranked Houston team as the Knights defeated then No. 6 Houston, 67-62, on March 2, 2019. The win marked UCF's second highest ranked victory in program history, trailing only 2011's win over then No. 4 UConn (68-63).

Winners of 13 of their last 14, the Cougars' game against UCF marks their first since Jan. 22, when Houston defeated ECU, 79-36. Houston limited the Pirates to only eight field goals and 1-of-19 3-point shooting while holding ECU to the third-fewest points scored in The American history.

With junior guard Marcus Sasser sidelined due to injury, senior guard Kyler Edwards paces the Cougars with 14.4 points per game and has been solid on the boards with 5.9 rebounds per contest. Edwards is the reigning AAC Player of the Week after picking up the award in back-to-back weeks.

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson is in his eighth season at the helm of the Cougars. He has enjoyed a 184-66 record as their head coach and is looking to get his team back into the NCAA Final Four for the second straight year.

Saturday will mark the first of two games this season between UCF and Houston, with the Knights scheduled to travel to Texas on Feb. 17.

Levontai "Bo" Summersett, a do-it-all player at North Fort Myers, made the trip to Orlando this past weekend to attend "Hometown Hero." It was Summersett's third time on campus as he took an unofficial visit last summer and then returned during the season for the War on I-4 against South Florida.

"It was a good visit," Summersett said. "I talked a lot to the coaches. We had fun too, ate some good food. We played Madden and dodgeball, then took pictures wearing the uniform. UCF is always a good atmosphere to be around. I really liked it."

The jersey try-on was definitely a highlight.

"It was a hype atmosphere in the locker room," Summersett said. "I went with the all black look with the black helmets, basically the blackout uniform."

He's being recruited by UCF offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey.

"He came to my school last week and asked me to come up," Summersett said. "It was good to start building that relationship."

Summersett plays all over the field, seeing reps at quarterback, running back, wide receiver and defensive back.

"I think I'll play receiver or safety in college," Summersett said.

Is there a preference between offense or defense?

"Not really," Summersett said. "I do like the ball in my hands, but I also like to make plays. I'll play whichever one is better for the program."

His offers include Boston College, FAU, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, Tennessee and South Florida.

"Coaches always say they like how I make plays after the catch," Summersett said. "For safety, I'm a ball hawk. I had four picks last season."

At Hometown Hero, Summersett met with wide receivers coach Darrell Wyatt so that could be an indication of where UCF sees him. The Knights have yet to offer, but could be close.

"I hope so," Summersett said. "Hopefully when I come back and visit in the spring I'll get it then."

Summersett also visited Georgia Tech and Georgia State last fall and tripped to Florida State a couple weeks ago. He's hoping to see more schools this spring.

No favorites yet, though he likes UCF a lot.

"The coaches are really good," Summersett said. "I think today showed me they're good at relationships and how they can help you outside of football also."

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I am aware that we won’t have the official schedule until mid February and our AAC opponents have already been set, but has anyone heard any rumors on how many potential weekday games we will have?

Not sure if this is anything new but references a January 19 presentation? probably need OBJ sub to read the whole thing, but...


The University of Central Florida has revealed more details on how its 44,206-seat football stadium may add seating and more.

UCF expects to convert about 4,600 seats in the upper bowl of the south end zone into 1,050 loge seats, which include a seat back and would be in a proposed new premium area of the stadium, according to a Jan. 19 presentation. To make up for that reduction, the university proposes adding 5,000 seats in the north end zone, for a net gain of 1,450 seats

8pm, Saturday, ESPN2 or be there.​

​

Men's Basketball Primed to Take on No. 7 Houston\​

Quan Lee Inks Third NIL Deal, Ca$hing in on Hard Work​

Incoming UCF Football freshman wide receiver Quan Lee has inked his third NIL deal, this time with Your Brand Voice.

Excerpts from linked article: “Charlie Batch tweeted earlier this month that a $1 million NIL deal awaits Oklahoma transfer quarterback Caleb Williams.”

”The Clark Field Collective at Texas is paying Longhorns offensive linemen $50,000 each … basically just for being Texas offensive linemen.”

“Billionaire John Ruiz is paying at least 17 Miami Hurricanes players this year a total of approximately $550,000 to promote his businesses”

“An energy bar CEO at BYU caused a stir last when year when he paid for the tuition of the program's 30-plus walk-ons.”

“To some, all of it is about 12 highway exits past the Wild, Wild West. A random message board poster recently suggested Texas A&M paid $22 million to $30 million in NIL benefits for its currently No. 1-ranked recruiting class. The first reaction from many coaches -- always thinking about competitive advantage -- wasn't the post's veracity. It was that such an arrangement was theoretically possible in the current NIL environment.”

These NIL Collectives, coupled with the transfer portal with immediate eligibility, are going to destroy college football. Recruiting will be 100% determined by where kids can earn the most money while playing in college. Playere who are 2 and 3 stars recruits out of high school who go to small and mid level football programs and then exceed expectations, will be transferring to bigger programs the first chance they get, so can earn hundreds of thousands, and possibly even millions of dollars paid by NIL Collectives. There have always been some players who transferred to bigger programs, but they always had to sit out a year and there was never a direct financial incentive to transfer. Now there is and no doubt these NIL collectives will cause a huge increase in D1 football transfers.

Even before NIL, Collectives, and immediate eligibility transfers, it was hard enough for Group of 5 and lower level Power 5 schools to recruit against the elite Power 5 programs. The elite programs had many advantages with much bigger budgets, much better facilities, more TV exposure, better NFL exposure, and the chance for players to regularly compete for P5 Conference and National Championships. But these are all intangibles and indirect benefits, that could possibly lead to future financial benefits.

With NIL Collectives, the top schools with ultra wealthy boosters and huge dedicated fan bases will be able to throw virtually unlimited wealth in direct payments to players and the promise of that wealth for prospective recruits, both high school recruits and transfers. Elite programs like Bama, Texas, UF, and Ohio State will become like the New York Yankees, with NIL Collectives that will probably be paying players 30 times as much money as Group of 5 and lower tier P5 schools. I won’t be surprised if eventually we see schools like Bama and Texas with Collectives that grow to have annual budgets of $50 or even $100 million dollars. That might be an understatement, unless the NCAA does something drastic to change the current course these collectives are taking college football

As much as I dislike what the NIL and these collectives are going to do to college football, UCF better join the party and quickly. These collectives have started a major arms race. ASAP, we need to start forming some UCF Collectives and raising some serious funds, especially with us joining the Big 12 in 2023. I really like the approach that the UF Gator Collective, discussed in this article, is taking by offering membership fees as low as $9.99 up to $999 per month. Sure its great if we have some ultra wealth boosters who want to throw some serious bank into a collective or in direct payment arrangements with some UCF football players, but there is a lot of power in small donations, if we can get a wide reach with a large number of UCF fans contributing. They say we have the most active fan base on social media. I say we leverage that to build and fund a membership collective modeled after the Gator collective.

Article: NIL College Football Collectives

Great turnout last night as the Free Block Party/Concert (alcohol sold in the street too) certainly seemed to help attract more fans to this game plus #7 Houston coming in was an attraction too.

Also...most general fans had no clue that adult beverages would be available for purchase at most concession stands either as some on this board would use that as a reason as why they never bought UCF Hoop Season Tix or even going to one game (with a ticket that they actually paid for).

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Linebacker Terrence Lewis, a five-star prospect in the Class of 2021, announced his transfer commitment to UCF on Monday.

The former Miami (Fla.) Central star enrolled early at Maryland last year, but did not play this past season while recovering from ACL surgery. The knee injury was actually incurred during his senior season and not discovered until he arrived to College Park. He underwent surgery last January.

At one point during his high school recruitment, Auburn was considered the favorite but Lewis dropped the Tigers following the dismissal of Gus Malzahn. Now he gets to play for Malzahn - and defensive coordinator Travis Williams - back in his home state of Florida.

Lewis will be the second former five-star in as many years to announce a transfer to UCF. Last summer, the Knights welcomed wide receiver Jordan Johnson who left Notre Dame.

Linebacker is a big need for UCF as three of their top four players at the position are headed out. Bryson Armstrong, who was UCF's tackles leader before suffering a season-ending injury, has exhausted his eligibility, while Tatum Bethune and Eriq Gilyard are transferring out. Gilyard opted out following the fourth game and has since committed to Kansas. Bethune, who ended the season as UCF's tackles leader, hit the portal several days ago.

UCF signed 15 players in December: 14 from high school and one in the transfer portal. At that time, Malzahn said they had room to add about 10 more players with a bulk of those spots likely going to transfers.

Lewis becomes UCF's third transfer commitment, joining offensive tackle Tylan Grable (Jacksonville State) and defensive back Koby Perry (Austin Peay).

"I'm real excited about how recruiting is going here," Malzahn said late this past season. "We've got a real chance to finish this thing really strong. I think I've told you this before. It's going to be an unbelievable destination place for transfers. The future is bright."

Concept only.

Again. J&J vax but no booster. Had 19 a few years ago. For those who went through this recently what did you experience? #ChargeOn*

Can't find it on a USA Gucci page, but that's a $1,300 hoodie.

I love how we are recruiting 😆

SIAP:

Pac-12 is ALWAYS nervous about not being in Top 6 and even the ACC after last season may not agree to this as they want an auto bid no matter what.

Bowlsby is confident Big 12 will be a Top 6 (more likely Tope 3 or 4) each year.

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Just got over to UCF Arena for the upcoming basketball game vs. Houston, but I was able to catch up with a bunch of recruits immediately after the event, and made contacts to catch up with more guys in the coming days.

Gus Malzahn was not there. A couple recruits mentioned it, understanding the situation with his wife. One guy said they got a text from Gus. I'm not entirely sure if anybody was 100% planning to commit today, but I think if somebody was ready to do it, they'd probably want to hold off a little bit longer to make sure Gus was involved.

There will be a ton of interviews in the coming days, but two big nuggets from guys I've talked to already:

LB Troy Ford Jr. said UCF is now his No. 1 school. South Carolina is also up there, but the Knights are now on top. Really good kid, enjoyed talking with him.

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OL Roderick Kearney said right now he's mostly focused on two schools - UCF and FSU. Those are his two favorites at the moment. He's got a great relationship with Herb Hand.

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Other guys I spoke to: KJ Kirkland, Levontai "Bo" Summersett, Tray Tolliver, Bryce Harrison, Antonio Ferguson, Jalen Smith, Kaleb Cost, Sincere Edwards, D'Antre Robinson and Kaven Call.

I missed talking with the Harris twins, but hopefully can catch up with them later. Same for Goldie Lawrence.

Will hopefully catch up with more guys tomorrow.

Baltimore v KC game half time show is feeling like any UCF fan sitting on the north end zone of the bounce house

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