Unless playing and losing road games against P5 doesn’t hurt us for NY6 (in other words if it’s the top tier teams in the country) and helps us get in the CFP (it doesn’t) it makes very little sense to do 2-1. Call it supply and demand. UCF has a short supply of stadium capacity and a relatively high (compared to the rest of the AAC) demand for seats no matter the opponent. For a cow it makes sense because they have a very high supply of capacity of seats at their home stadium and a very low nominal demand for those seats. Just going back to 2013 when we have played a Florida school or literally any P5 or BYU here are the attendance figures.
South Carolina 2013 47k
Bethune Cookman 2014 44k
BYU 2014 41k
FIU 2015 39k
Maryland 2016 43k
FIU 2017 38k
FAU 2018 44k
Pitt 2018 45k
FAMU 2019 44k
Stanford 2019 44k
Keep in mind since the premium expansion, the capacity is around 44k-45k. At the absolute low end with literally any Florida team, BYU, or P5 schools are at least 85-90% capacity and often 95-100%. What is the incentive to have a blue blood name 1 time in 3 years when it’s going to draw the same as a Pitt or Boise will? At the expense of a home game?
Now contrast this with usf who will draw 62-65k actual attendance for a single game vs the Gators or Alabama at home (mostly visiting fans) vs the 20-30k they actually have for any other opponent who doesn’t send a lot of visiting fans. You will see why the decision to sacrifice a decent opponent every year for a top tier bloodbath ever other year is an easy one for them.
South Carolina 2013 47k
Bethune Cookman 2014 44k
BYU 2014 41k
FIU 2015 39k
Maryland 2016 43k
FIU 2017 38k
FAU 2018 44k
Pitt 2018 45k
FAMU 2019 44k
Stanford 2019 44k
Keep in mind since the premium expansion, the capacity is around 44k-45k. At the absolute low end with literally any Florida team, BYU, or P5 schools are at least 85-90% capacity and often 95-100%. What is the incentive to have a blue blood name 1 time in 3 years when it’s going to draw the same as a Pitt or Boise will? At the expense of a home game?
Now contrast this with usf who will draw 62-65k actual attendance for a single game vs the Gators or Alabama at home (mostly visiting fans) vs the 20-30k they actually have for any other opponent who doesn’t send a lot of visiting fans. You will see why the decision to sacrifice a decent opponent every year for a top tier bloodbath ever other year is an easy one for them.