Flanked by his parents in Section 235 of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on New Year’s Day, Central Florida senior Eli Fried watched his classmates celebrate their Peach Bowl win and thought, This is going to be big.
That victory over Auburn meant UCF would finish its season 13–0, the only lossless team in the FBS, and athletic director Danny White would declare, “Undefeated. National champions.” It meant applications would skyrocket and the 64,000-student Orlando university would be in the news for days. But that’s not what Fried meant.
The confetti has long since been vacuumed from the Mercedes-Benz Stadium turf (twice, actually; the title game was held there, too).