#ChargeOn Today: New name, who dis? 🏟️ — The COVID conundrum 🦠
I’ve got to show some love to my friend Jason Beede, who was just named the new UCF beat writer for the Orlando Sentinel!
Jason carried on the legacy of Knights247 after Juan Toribio left, who took over for me. I helped start that site, so I take a huge sense of pride in the pipeline it created. I couldn’t be more proud of you, Jason! He works his tail off and I bet we’ll see his name a lot more in this newsletter moving forward (including this next post)
📱One more thing: We just launched a new Instagram page! Make sure you click here to follow it!
Today’s read is 3.5 minutes ⏲️
Trending in the Kingdom: 3MG Stadium?
UCF's stadium may finally have a new name (Photo: UCF)
It’ll still casually be known as the Bounce House, but it looks like UCF’s on-campus football stadium will now officially have a new name: 3MG Stadium.
Fill me in: The UCF Athletics department has entered into a 12-year, $20 million agreement with Winter Park’s own 3MG Roofing LLC for the naming rights to the stadium, according to a report by Beede (see, told you we’d see his name in here!). The stadium would be called “3MG Stadium” starting on Sept. 1, ahead of UCF’s opener with Boise State on Sept. 2.
What’s next? ✍🏻 The UCF Board of Trustees still needs to approve the deal, with a vote scheduled to take place on Wednesday. 3MG is also the official roofing partner of the UCF Knights, which is why you’ll see a bunch of their signage at press conferences and in backdrops, but finding a naming rights partner for the stadium was clearly a priority for new AD Terry Mohajir.
“Every piece of real estate that you can have a sign on it is a priority to building our budget,” Mohajir said during a recent ChargeOn stop in Oviedo, via the Orlando Sentinel. “Anybody that’s interested in sponsoring and partnering with us is a priority.”
The $20M payday over the lifetime of the contract would be greater than the naming rights from Bright House Networks (rebranded Spectrum) Stadium in 2006. That deal was worth $15 million over 15 years.
Why it matters: UCF isn’t the only team that struggled to secure a naming-rights deal. Other professional franchises have, too, and the game seems to be changing a bit, but these deals are really important. UCF now has a guaranteed revenue source for more than a decade and that’s invaluable coming out of the pandemic. This might also help contribute to some much-needed expansion projects in the future.
Vaccine or forfeit? 🦠💉
AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said team's with COVID outbreaks could be forced to forfeit games. (Photo: AP)
Commissioner Mike Aresco seemed to make it pretty clear at American Athletic Conference football Media Days last week: If your team can’t play a game due to a COVID-19 outbreak this season, you’re going to be adding a L to your schedule.
Here’s the scoop: There’s added pressure now for AAC teams to increase their COVID-19 vaccination rates, given Aresco’s new policy that games canceled due to a virus outbreak will not be rescheduled, meaning the team that can’t play will be forced to forfeit.
“We’ve decided we will not reschedule games this year if a team cannot play because of COVID,” Aresco said. “It will be considered a forfeit.”
“We’re going to advocate for universal vaccination for our student-athletes. They have real incentives to get vaccinated, health and safety, obviously, being the primary one. We as a conference also want to set a really good example for our campuses and for our communities.”
Aresco said his stance could shift if CDC guidelines change, which is entirely possible given the spread of the highly-transmissible Delta variant, which is leading to a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths across the country, especially in Florida. Our state leads the nation in new COVID-19 cases and has the highest 7-day average in the nation.
💉 There’s a clear incentive for players to get vaccinated:
The conference will continue to test unvaccinated players.
There is no plan for vaccinated players to go through weekly testing that was used last season.
The added pressure within locker rooms to not cost your team an opportunity to win (or even play) a game.
Shoot, Boise State, which plays UCF in the season opener on Sept. 2 at the Bounce House, had to close their first fall practice to visitors out of an abundance of caution due to a number of positive cases within the athletic program.
The ban includes media. Also, Mountain West officials say a team that has to pull out of a game because of COVID won’t get a rematch; they’ll have to forfeit.
This isn’t just a safety policy for the league. It’s also clearly a financial play. There were 139 games canceled or postponed during the 2020 regular season, according to CBS Sports, which led to TV revenue losses and a chaotic race to reschedule games, something leagues don’t want a repeat of in 2021.
How lucky were we? 🍀 UCF did not have a single game canceled or postponed due to the virus in 2020, the only AAC team or Florida FBS program to avoid a COVID interruption. The UNC and FIU games weren’t played as a scheduling/preventative measure, but that’s it.
Do any of the other major conferences have a COVID-19 forfeit policy in place?
SEC: Not yet, but commissioner Greg Sanky said they might implement one.
Big Ten: Not yet, but there had been a longstanding conference forfeit policy in place before COVID.
ACC: The conference hasn’t decided yet.
Pac-12: Like the Big Ten, they’ve had a longstanding conference forfeit policy before COVID and the commissioner hinted they might go back to it.
Big 12: They’re expected to adopt a forfeit policy.
And for the record, this isn’t a political conversation. It’s entirely about avoiding a potential forfeit. The higher your team’s vaccination rate, the better your chances are for not having to take a loss on your schedule.
The state of Mississippi has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the nation, but features college football’s first team to have 100% of its players and staff vaccinated in Ole Miss. Here’s Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin on the reason why his team reached the benchmark:
“Nobody wants to be in a position to forfeit games,” Kiffin said.
We don’t know exactly where UCF stands, but head coach Gus Malzahn said last week the team has “around 70 percent” in terms of fully vaccinated. Defensive lineman Kalia Davis said he’s going to do all he can to improve that number.
How Bobby Bowden helped save UCF 🙏🏻
The sport lost a legend this weekend in Bowden, who died at 91. (Photo: Getty Images)
We’re all still digesting the loss of legendary college football coach Bobby Bowden, a larger-than-life personality who led Florida State to football prominence and became one of the greatest to ever roam the sidelines. His 357 wins trail only Joe Paterno for most ever in the sport.
Bowden was diagnosed with a terminal medical condition last month.
He’s being remembered all over the country. Even Mohajir took some time out to honor Bowden.
What an amazing role model for young coaches! My few interactions with Coach Bowden were very pure and authentic! I’m told he was extremely supportive of Coach McDowell in the early days of our football program; even donated equipment when we were just getting started. 🙏🏽 https://t.co/p6A53ITQRb
His ties to UCF: There is a cool connection between Bowden and the UCF program, as Mohajir alluded to. Honestly, there’s some that credit Bowden with actually helping to save UCF football.
Gene McDowell, long known as the father of the program, helped elevate the Knights to Division I-AA in 1990, but there was plenty of financial hardship prior to that move. McDowell spent 16 years as an assistant at FSU, under Bowden, and helped fuel the Seminoles rise up the sport.
When he came to UCF, the program was in such a dire place financially that it was nearly dropped. In an effort to cut back on program expenses, McDowell gave back half of his annual salary and his close friend, Bowden, donated uniforms and cleats to help the program stay afloat. There’s more on their unique relationship here.
In case you forgot: Bowden was also in favor of UCF’s national championship claim in 2017 when they went undefeated under Scott Frost.
“I’ll be honest with you, they deserve it in my opinion,“ Bowden said to Omaha.com. "But they won’t win it because they’re not in the Power Five, you know? But you take Auburn in November, probably the hottest team in the country, Auburn beat No. 1 and No. 2, then Central Florida beats them. And so I think they got a right to claim it. But the NCAA won’t recognize it.”
Well coach, they did. I guess we have you to thank for even making it possible.
RIP to arguably the greatest to ever do it.
By Ryan Bass
The #ChargeOn Today Newsletter is dedicated to covering trending UCF Athletics news and topics. Have some feedback? Shoot me a message: chargeontoday@gmail.com
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