Civil Conflict
| Sport | Football |
|---|---|
| Teams |
The Civil Conflict (sometimes styled as the conFLiCT[1]), is the name given by University of Connecticut football head coach Bob Diaco to Connecticut's annual matchup against the UCF Knights football team of the University of Central Florida. [2][3] The teams first met in 2013 as members of the American Athletic Conference (The American).
In June 2015, Connecticut created a trophy for the rivalry and announced it on Twitter. UCF had not been involved in the announcement and was unaware of it beforehand.[4][5][6] The Knights head coach and interim athletic director George O'Leary dismissed both the trophy and the motivations for a rivalry between the two teams.[7] Diaco responded by saying, "They [UCF] don't get to say whether they are our rival or not."[2][8] The New York Post said that Diaco created the "worst rivalry in sports history."[9]
Before Connecticut gave a name to the series, the teams had played twice, with UCF winning the first game and Connecticut upsetting the Knights in 2014. Connecticut's upset of UCF in 2014 was the Knights' only conference loss in their first two years as members of The American. The 2015 game featured Connecticut winning for the second straight year while making UCF's record on the season fall to 0–6. Following their win in the 2016 game, UCF exited the field without accepting, or even acknowledging the trophy.[10]
Game results
| Connecticut victories | UCF victories |
| No. | Date | Location | Winner | Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 26, 2013 | Orlando, FL | UCF | 62–17 | ||||
| 2 | November 1, 2014 | East Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 37–29 | ||||
| 3 | October 10, 2015 | Orlando, FL | Connecticut | 40–13 | ||||
| 4 | October 22, 2016 | East Hartford, CT | UCF | 24–16 | ||||
| Series: Tied 2–2 | ||||||||
References
- ^ Rodger Sherman [@rodger_sherman] (October 8, 2015). "why is the font on the conFLiCT trophy the same font every faux Irish bar uses" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ a b "Bob Diaco of UConn Huskies – Do not need UCF Knights consent for rivalry". ESPN.com.
- ^ Wilson, Ryan. "Diaco Embraces Contrived 'Civil Conflict' Rivalry". NBC Connecticut.
- ^ "UConn Randomly Creates Rivalry With Central Florida, Dubs It 'Civil Conflict' - UConn - NESN.com". NESN.com.
- ^ Duffy, Thomas. "UConn Promotes 'Rivalry' Game with UCF, Knights Deny Any Involvement". Bleacher Report.
- ^ Sherman, Rodger (June 1, 2015). "UConn-UCF's new 'Civil Conflict' rivalry trophy is already the country's worst". SBNation.com. Vox Media.
- ^ "UCFSports.com – UConn surprises O'Leary with trophy".
- ^ Conner, Desmond. "Diaco Won't Back Down On UConn-UCF Football Rivalry". Hartford Courant.
- ^ Braziller, Zach (June 8, 2015). "Coach creates worst rivalry in sports history". New York Post.
- ^ Fuller, Jim (October 22, 2016). "UConn coach Bob Diaco says loss to UCF 'sickening'". The Middletown Press.