Today, officials from the St. Petersburg Bowl (8/19, 8pm on ESPN) offered the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers the Big East spot of the game to take on the UCF Knights! UCF was offered the Conference USA slot last week. The Scarlet Knights (8-4; 3-4 Big East) ended their regular season of play on Saturday with a close (24-21) loss to #16 West Virginia. UCF (8-4; 6-2 C-USA) finished their regular season with a defeat of the UAB Blazers (34-27) last Saturday. The way the two teams’ seasons ended, the UCF Knights will have an extra week under their belt to rest and prepare for final exams, which begin at UCF this week. Rutgers, on the other hand, immediately enters practice. Plus, the game will be in the middle of their final exam week. The Knights actually stack-up fairly well against each other:
– The Scarlet Knights rank No. 20 nationally in rushing defense (109 yards allowed per game), No. 42 in passing defense (203 yards allowed per game) and No. 19 in total defense (312 yards allowed per game).
– UCF ranks No. 4 nationally in rushing defense (83 yards allowed per game), No. 70 in passing defense (210 yards allowed per game) and No. 46 in total defense (348 yards allowed per game).
A big advantage for the UCF Knights is that the game is only 126 miles from their campus; and UCF has already sold over 12,000 tickets to the game, selling-out their student ticket allotment in just 2 days. Tickets for the St. Petersburg Bowl are cheap at only $30 (plus service fees and taxes) Tickets should be purchased only through the UCF Athletics Ticket Office (ucfbowl.com). This game is going to be exciting and it is going to be great to get the chance to cheer-on the UCF Knights one more time this year! GO BLACK & GOLD!!! BEAT RUTGERS!!!