A watered down league that if we win, it gives us an easier path to the playoffs than you 😎
7-6 isn't going to get you to the 12-team CFI. If everyone keeps bailing from the AAC (SMU will next season) then yeah, maybe you can finally play for and win a conference. You had to go from The Big East --> AAC --> Watered-down AAC --> Even further watered-down AAC, so the conference has been demoted basically three times and you still haven't figured out how to even play for a conference title. Maybe if you just created your own conference, with only yourselves in it (or maybe pull in UMass, UConn, and Army), you could maybe play for and win a conference title. At some point, as your conference competition gets weaker and weaker you should be able to finally play for and get a trophy. This season you didn't play SMU or Tulane, the two best teams in the league. I mean you do have to crawl before you walk, so you started to beat the bottom-feeders of the conference.
The 7 teams you beat had records of: FAMU (FCS/HBCU), Rice (6-6 with Bowl Game yet to be played...haven't beaten a team with a winning record), Navy (5-7...didn't beat a team with a winning record), UConn (3-9...didn't beat a team with a winning record), Temple (3-9...didn't beat a team with a winning record), Charlotte (3-9...didn't beat a team with a winning record) and Syracuse (6-7...didn't beat a team with a winning record). So nobody you beat, or anybody those 7 teams beat had a winning record...congrats!
I predicted UCF to be 6-6 this season. Even with that we beat the Mountain West champ (who did only go 8-6...Boise State), and we beat a 9-4 Ok State that played for the Big-12 title. Other than that we beat chumps and other bottom-feeders like ourselves this season. With a new QB coming in (or playing with Timmy), and a defense still needing to get much, much better I'm not sure I see more than 6-6 for the Knights again next season. Next season we do get the benefit of not playing at the two hardest places since 2000 to get a road win (Boise St and Oklahoma...we went 1-1), we play 5 home conference games instead of 4 (and 7 total games at home instead of 6). we're also actually recruiting with the Big 12 patch on our jersey and this does matter because kids just have a pecking order for where they go and it definitely goes P5-->G5, even though I've never understood why for certain situations. In 2023 the players we got are better...on paper...so my prediction is that we should see us getting much better in 2025 as our roster turnover finally happens. Of course, the portal exists so who knows what havoc that could play with your roster, good or bad. If not appreciably better in 2025, UCF needs to seriously consider moving on from Gus.