The UCF Knights football team represents the University of Central Florida in the sport of American football. The Knights compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are a member of the Big 12 Conference. The Knights play their home games at the 45,301-seat FBC Mortgage Stadium, which is located on UCF's main campus in Orlando, Florida, United States.
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2024 season, there are 10 conferences and 134 schools in FBS.
The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year since 2015 in Orlando, Florida. It is currently held at Camping World Stadium, and in the past has been held at FBC Mortgage Stadium and Exploria Stadium. The Cure Bowl is so named to promote awareness and research of breast cancer, with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The Cure Bowl usually features teams from the American Athletic Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. Since 2024, it has been sponsored by the health care employment website StaffDNA and officially known as the StaffDNA Cure Bowl; previous sponsors include AutoNation (2014–2018), FBC Mortgage (2019–2020), Tailgreeter (2021), Duluth Trading Company (2022), and Avocados from Mexico (2023).
The 2012–13 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They concluded the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and included 35 team-competitive games and four all-star games. The games began on Saturday, December 15, 2012, and, aside from the all-star games, concluded with the 2013 BCS National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida that was played on January 7, 2013.
The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and six affiliate member universities that compete in The National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Member universities represent a range of private and public research universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States.
Michael Kelly Norvell is an American college football coach. He is the head football coach for Florida State, a position he has held since 2020. He was previously head coach at Memphis, and has coached for Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Central Arkansas. He played wide receiver at the University of Central Arkansas from 2001 to 2005 and is the school's all-time receptions leader.
The 2015 American Athletic Conference football season is the 25th NCAA Division I FBS football season of the American Athletic Conference. The season is the third since the breakup of the former Big East Conference, and the second season with the new College Football Playoff in place. Under the playoff system, The American is no longer an Automatic Qualifying conference (AQ), and is considered a member of the "Group of Five" (G5) with Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference. Whereas under the previous system the champion of the conference was guaranteed an automatic berth to a BCS bowl game, now the highest-ranked member of the G5 will receive a bid to one of the six major bowls.
The 2016 American Athletic Conference football season was the 25th NCAA Division I FBS football season of the American Athletic Conference. The season was the third since the breakup of the former Big East Conference, and the third season with the College Football Playoff in place. The American was considered a member of the "Group of Five" (G5) with Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference. Whereas under the previous system the champion of the conference was guaranteed an automatic berth to a BCS bowl game, the highest-ranked champion member of the G5 received a bid to one of the six major bowls.
The 2016 Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team represented the University of Tulsa in the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Golden Hurricane played their home games at Skelly Field at H. A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and competed in the West Division of American Athletic Conference (AAC). They were led by second-year head coach Philip Montgomery. They finished the season 10–3, 6–2 in America Athletic play to finish in second place in the West Division. They were invited to the Miami Beach Bowl where they defeated Central Michigan.
The 2017 American Athletic Conference football season is the 26th NCAA Division I FBS Football season of the American Athletic Conference. The season is the fifth since the former Big East Conference dissolved and became the American Athletic Conference, and the fourth season with the College Football Playoff in place. The American is considered a member of the "Group of Five" (G5), meaning that the conference shares with the other G5 conferences one automatic spot in the New Year's Six bowl games.
The 2017 Georgia State Panthers football team represented Georgia State University (GSU) in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Panthers were led by first-year head coach Shawn Elliott. He was hired in December 2016 ahead of the 2017 season. The season marked the first in which they played in the newly acquired Georgia State Stadium, a renovated Turner Field with artificial turf and a 22,000 person capacity. The season was the Panthers' fifth in the Sun Belt Conference and eighth since starting football. The Panthers finished the season 7–5, 5–3 in Sun Belt play to finish in fourth place. They received an invite to the Cure Bowl, where Georgia State defeated Western Kentucky for the Panthers' first bowl win in program history.
The 2017 SMU Mustangs football team represented Southern Methodist University in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Mustangs played their home games at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas, and competed in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference. They were led by third-year coach Chad Morris during the entire regular season until December 6, when he resigned to become the head coach at Arkansas. On December 11, SMU hired Sonny Dykes as head coach, and he led them in their bowl game. They finished the season 7–6, 4–4 in AAC play to finish in a tie for third place in the West Division. They were invited to the Frisco Bowl where they lost to Louisiana Tech.
The 2017 UCF Knights football team represented the University of Central Florida in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Knights played their home games at the newly renamed Spectrum Stadium in Orlando, Florida, and competed in the East Division of the American Athletic Conference. They were led by second year head coach Scott Frost.
The 2018 American Athletic Conference football season is the 27th NCAA Division I FBS Football season of the American Athletic Conference. The season is the sixth since the former Big East Conference dissolved and became the American Athletic Conference, and the fifth season with the College Football Playoff in place. The American is considered a member of the "Group of Five" (G5), meaning that the conference shares with the other G5 conferences one automatic spot in the New Year's Six bowl games.
The 2018 Memphis Tigers football team represented the University of Memphis in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Tigers played their home games at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee and competed in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference. They were led by third-year head coach Mike Norvell. They finished the season 8–6, 5–3 in AAC to finish in a three-way tie for the West Division championship. After tie-breakers, they represented the West Division in the AAC Championship Game where they lost to East Division champion UCF. They were invited to the Birmingham Bowl where they lost to Wake Forest.
The 2019 American Athletic Conference football season is the 28th NCAA Division I FBS Football season of the American Athletic Conference. The season is the seventh since the former Big East Conference dissolved and became the American Athletic Conference and the sixth season of the College Football Playoff in place. The American is considered a member of the Group of Five (G5) together with Conference USA (C–USA), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference.
The 2019 Memphis Tigers football team represented the University of Memphis in the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Tigers played their home games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, and competed in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference. They were led by fourth-year head coach Mike Norvell through the team's win in the American Championship Game, after which he left to fill the head coaching vacancy at Florida State. It was the first outright/unshared conference championship in 50 seasons. The team lost only two games, a regular season match-up against Temple and their bowl game against Penn State. Offensive line coach Ryan Silverfield was initially named head coach of the team for their bowl game, the Cotton Bowl; the interim tag was removed and he was named the new head coach of the Tigers.
The 2019 SMU Mustangs football team represented Southern Methodist University during the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Mustangs were led by second-year head coach Sonny Dykes and played their home games at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in University Park, Texas, a separate city within the city limits of Dallas. They competed as members of the West Division of the American Athletic Conference.
The 2020 American Athletic Conference football season is the 29th NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision season of the American Athletic Conference. The season is the eighth since the former Big East Conference dissolved and became the American Athletic Conference and the seventh season of the College Football Playoff in place. The American is considered a member of the Group of Five (G5) together with Conference USA (C–USA), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference.
The 2021 American Athletic Conference football season was the 30th NCAA Division I FBS Football season of the American Athletic Conference. The season was the ninth since the former Big East Conference dissolved and became the American Athletic Conference and the eighth season of the College Football Playoff in place. The American was considered a member of the Group of Five (G5) together with Conference USA (C–USA), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference.
