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Dan Mullen: Florida's 2-for-1 series offer to UCF 'would be great' way for Knights to toughen schedule

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen thinks UCF could toughen up its schedule if it wanted to come to Gainesville twice. (AP)
Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen thinks UCF could toughen up its schedule if it wanted to come to Gainesville twice. (AP)

Florida coach Dan Mullen has an idea for Central Florida if the Knights are looking for a tougher schedule. UCF should take Florida’s offer of a two-for-one football series.

Florida announced this week that it had adjusted its three-game series with South Florida. The Gators will meet the Bulls in Tampa in 2021 while South Florida plays at Florida in 2022 and 2025.

USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference like UCF. Is what’s good for the goose what’s good for the gander?

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“I think we offered them a two-for-one like we do with most schools in their position which I think is actually a really good deal,” Mullen said of UCF. “They’d have the opportunity to have an SEC school play at their place would be potentially a big deal for them. I know I’ve done it that way — when I was at Mississippi State we did it, we played some two for ones with schools in smaller conferences, give them the opportunity to have an SEC school is a big plus for them. [Athletic director Scott Stricklin] brought it up to them, if they want to try to toughen their schedule, that would be great. It’d be a good opportunity for them I think if they want to take it, but that’s up to them.”

By now you know that UCF is on a winning streak that dates back to the start of the 2017 season. But despite going undefeated for the past two regular seasons the Knights haven’t sniffed the College Football Playoff because the AAC isn’t a power conference.

If a 25-game win streak isn’t enough for a playoff berth, you’d think it’d be enough to earn you the right to have a home-and-home series with a team you’re ranked above. But the pride of the SEC runs strong for Florida and Mullen, who may have also been doing some subtle trolling with his answer.

Many UCF fans really wanted to play Florida in a bowl game instead of LSU. But the No. 8 Knights got shipped to Arizona to play the Tigers while No. 10 Florida plays Michigan in the postseason (again).

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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