Is it a 2-for-1 or not? Who cares.
The story of how UCF and Florida agreed to play a series of games is not about defining the contract and placing it in a category. It's about one team needing games and another doing something no one else would.
Let's start with this, UCF AD Terry Mohajir wants his football program to play big games. He wants to continue to build the UCF brand and believes the best way to do that is to play blueblood brands. And he wants his team to have a chance to make the proposed expanded college football every year and believes playing the best teams is a way of getting in.
If you want to focus on whether or not it's a change in scheduling philosophy, have had it. Every college football program should schedule based on their needs. Do they need more home games to help their budget? Do they need to find some wins because of a new coach and rebuilding phase? Do they need to find a game against a likely ranked opponent because they may need that quality game to impress the playoff committee? Those are several reasons scheduling varies from school to school.
But scheduling in college football is big business and a big challenge but it's also crazy because programs race to get games on future schedules as fast as they can. Scheduling a game 12 years down the road is just wild. But the majority of top P5 teams have basically booked their schedule for the next decade, which brings us back to Terry Mohajir.
UCF's recent success, 41-8 the last four seasons and two major bowl games, has put them in a difficult spot. The Knights are struggling to find future games. Officially, UCF needs two games for 2023, 2024 and 2025. That's a problem. 2025 may seem like a long way away but in college football scheduling it's like your Publix is closing and you still are trying what to buy for that late night dinner and shelves are empty. Your choices are slim and nothing looks appealing.
UCF is not struggling to find games because of a scheduling philosophy that was around before Terry Mohajir. They are struggling to find games because teams don't want to play them. It's not because UCF has been Alabama-like but it is because they have played well enough that you could lose to them and most P5 programs don't like those scenarios.
Many have criticized former AD Danny White's public position about not doing 2-for-1 deals but it's not like White was even getting offered those deals to turn down. Yes, he tried to get home and home deals with many major brands and found no takers. In fact, those major brands were not interested in 2-for-1 deals either. Why go to Orlando, get a few tickets for your fans and possibly lose? I've said many times and remind people- two things still hurt UCF when it comes to getting P5 teams to come to the Bounce House. Those two things are Stanford and Pitt. Both came to Orlando and got rolled. Just be honest and recognize, if Ohio State, Oklahoma or Clemson come to the state for a non-conference game it will be in Gainesville. Optics matter in college football and at the moment fan bases can accept a loss to the Gators on the road as opposed to UCF.
When Terry Mohajir arrived at UCF and spoke about playing the biggest teams anywhere and anytime he meant that. So the UCF AD looked at future schedules and learned why UCF has so many openings and went to work. He grabbed his list of contacts and started making calls, sent text messages and emailed many. He was looking for games and he was looking for games in the next 2-4 years. It wasn't even about home and home deals or even 2-for-1 deals. He just needed games. Then something happened.
No one was interested. Messages went unreturned. Text responses were kind but not fruitful. Emails remain unread or got the polite response of "let me see what we got and get back to you." No one got back to him. It's not because fellow ADs and others in charge of scheduling at schools do not like Terry Mojahir, everyone loves the guy. They just were not interested for a variety of reasons. Maybe they don't have openings in the years UCF needs games. Maybe the dates don't work. Maybe they don't want to play a road game. Maybe they don't want to lose. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Mohajir tried every big brand you can think of. He reached out to them all. Yes, that one. And yes, that other one you are thinking of. Some schools that begin with the letter "A" from a state that begins with "A". He tried famous schools that end in "State" and even those whose name is the name of their state. No takers. Except one. One person did respond.
Florida AD Scott Stricklin and Terry Mohajir sat on the college football playoff committee together. It's natural that time in that room would develop friendships and business opportunities at some point- welcome to some point. Stricklin responded to Mohajir and listened to the UCF AD explain that he was looking for games in upcoming seasons. Stricklin himself has been busy when it comes to scheduling non-conference games. For years, Florida never left the state for a non-conference game. But that will be changing with scheduled series with California, Colorado, Arizona State, NC State, Texas and Notre Dame in the many years to come. It's easier for Stricklin to schedule games. His brand has been around longer than UCF and the perception is that you can lose to Florida and have it viewed as a quality loss.
Stricklin looked at his future schedules and knew he had an opening in 2024. The next year needing games is 2027. That didn't help Mohajir but a game in 2024 did. So the two agreed to play a game in Gainesville. BOOM!! (pun intended). In 2024, UCF will play at BYU and Florida and host Liberty and likely will have to add an FCS team for another home game. Why an FCS team? Because they are very few schools with any openings left in 2024 to play. Florida's 2024 non-conference slate will have Miami, UCF and Samford at home with a road game at FSU.
But Mohajir didn't let the call end there. He then asked Stricklin about future games and the two started kicking around ideas.They settled on games in 2030 and 2033 with a home game at the Bounce House in 30'. Is it a long way off of playing these other two games? Yes. But that's what Stricklin was offering.
Is it a 2-for-1? Is it a one game for 2024 and then a home and home? It's whatever you want it to be.
Here's something else Terry Mohajir is doing in his search for games. When he took over at UCF, Mohajir asked his players about the type of coach they want and what they felt the program needed to continue to grow. One of the things players told him was they wanted to play big games. They wanted to play home, on the road, anywhere against anyone. They told him there are some opponents that just don't get you excited to play and some of them are on set schedules in coming seasons. While players understand schedules are made for a variety of reasons they want to play in front of 80,000 and have a chance to get the next big win.
That's another reason Mohajir has been reaching out to anyone to schedule games. Because of that I do think UCF may be moving into what's called the "one off" world. Playing a "one off" is where a team agrees to go on the road or host a team with no return game. Usually there is a decent payday for those games. Those games still remain hard for UCF to schedule because the Knights could come to your house and beat you.
In the coming weeks and months, UCF will be announcing additional games as they fill out schedules for the coming years. There will be games against P5 schools and expect to see home and home agreements. But be prepared to possibly see "one off" games and also be prepared for FCS schools because UCF still needs to keep at least six home games a season.
Mohajir has learned the value of UCF football and the challenges in getting games scheduled. But he is not waving a white flag by any means. He will just get creative and continue to negotiate. But don't think he will stick to any philosophy when it comes to scheduling. He's not about to start agreeing to 2-for-1 deals with anyone. The biggest reason is no one is really interested in those deals either with the Knights. He also knows the size of UCF's stadium plays a role in some ways. UCF can't give a visiting team 8-10,000 tickets for a game. UCF usually offers about 3,000 to top visiting teams because the rest of their stadium is sold out.
Give credit to Stricklin for returning the call and getting a deal done with Mohajir no matter how you view the agreement. Mohajir is still calling, texting and emailing and will get creative to get schedules filled and grow his brand. The challenge is not going away if the team keeps on winning. But that's the world of college football scheduling.
Final thought: In 1992, UCF needed games to fill their schedule. They could not find an 11th game that season so they scheduled an exhibition with the Moscow Bears from the Russian League of American Football. The Knights won 43-6.