ESPN is doing it to UCF now

[MikeG]

Remember the whole USF versus South Florida hub bub several years ago?

Well the Golden Knights dropped the GOLDEN out of their name this year but ESPN announcers commenting on the highlights tonight referred to them as the Golden Knights anyway.

welcome to our world

[Triple B]

Remember the whole USF versus South Florida hub bub several years ago?

Well the Golden Knights dropped the GOLDEN out of their name this year but ESPN announcers commenting on the highlights tonight referred to them as the Golden Knights anyway.

welcome to our world

They also consistently called them Central Florida .... I thought they wanted to strictly go by UCF?

[nukebull]

Remember the whole USF versus South Florida hub bub several years ago?

Well the Golden Knights dropped the GOLDEN out of their name this year but ESPN announcers commenting on the highlights tonight referred to them as the Golden Knights anyway.

welcome to our world

They also consistently called them Central Florida .... I thought they wanted to strictly go by UCF?

I think this should clear it up for you:

Just FYI, it's always U-C-F for short ... Reply

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Just FYI, since we went I-A a dozen year ago, our media guides have really been pushing that we are either U-C-F (short) or the University of Central Florida (long) and no other names, period, no exceptions. There are reasons for this (below). I noticed many of you are already calling us UCF, and we appreciate that. For those that wonder why we want UCF, here's the deal ...

First off, no one at UCF says "Central Florida."

Secondly, there are dozens of various abbreviations we see.

Regarding the first, it's actually two things. One, "Central Florida " is 5 syllables. Unlike South Florida and Florida State, etc... which are Florida + 1 syllable and not much more than their acronyms (let alone USF doesn't roll off your tongue as easy as UCF, although FSU isn't bad), UCF is an extra 2, and it does make a difference. But, two, it actually goes farther back than that. We also started out as Florida Technological University (FTU), and FTU was much preferred over that sucker -- and "Florida Tech®" is trademarked by FIT.

So U-C-F has been what we call ourselves from Day 1 (since we renamed ourselves late in the '70s as the "engineering college" was no longer the focus).

Secondly, and more relevant to the national media, we have a real problem with the abbreviations ...

- C. Florida

- Cent. Fla

- Cent Fl

... (many, many other, confusing ones) ...

- Central F (WTF?)

and my personal favorite ...

- C.FL

(Canadian Football League?)

UCF is a very, very, very easy and standard way to abbreviate, it's the simple acronym. The acronym is unique among Division I, II and III (I think there is one, small, non-university program that uses it, but is not NCAA-affliated). And, again referring back to #1, it's what we have always called ourselves.

We really don't do this to be "arrogant" or anything. It's just what we've always called ourselves. If media outlets would actually and always use "Central Florida," we'd tolerate it. But they don't. They screw it up all-the-time. Not just on the tickers, but when they speak. Heck, we regularly see "UFC" and "Florida Central" as well.

Not good when you're reporting on the 6th largest university in the US.

Thank you for letting me "get the word out." Other than Corso (who lives in Orlando), Fowler and Herbie, who seem to respect us and always call us "UCF," no one else does. In fact, some at ESPN purposely call us "Central Florida" because they know it bothers us -- and one (I will not mention his name) even said he refuses to call us UCF.

Sigh, I long for the days of Howard Cosell who said, "the man wants to be called Mohammed Ali, so I call the man Mohammed Ali."

As posted by a UCif fan on the Texas site.

http://texas.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=61&tid=100463013&mid=100463013&sid=902&style=2

[Triple B]

In fact, some at ESPN purposely call us "Central Florida" because they know it bothers us --

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