We have reached the last full week in the college football season, also known as Rivalry Week. Your mind automatically jumps to legendary matchups like Ohio State and What's Their Names from Up North.
There's Alabama-Auburn. Mississippi and Mississippi State meet in the Egg Bowl.
Georgia-Georgia Tech.
And then, because the schedule says they have to, USF and Rice will play Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium.
Yes, fans will pack stadiums across the country to witness matchups full of venom, history, and mutal loathing. However, Bulls fans will have to be content watching a game against a team from a city 980 miles from Tampa.
If college football had its head on straight, this week would be the renewal of the War on I-4 between the Bulls and UCF. However, the series became collateral damage when the Big 12 absorbed UCF at a time when USF football was in the dumper.
You can't blame UCF for taking a cash grab and jumping to a power conference, and USF certainly would do the same. Indeed, the Bulls are actively trying to do the same. The Oracle, USF''s student newspaper, recently reported that CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins would receive a $500,000 bonus if the Bulls join an autonomy conference (translation: Power 4).
However, money withstanding, UCF has struggled during the Knights three years in the Big 12. They are a combined 7-19 in conference play heading into Saturday's game at BYU, including 2-6 this season.
BYU is a mere 2,322 miles from Orlando, located in the picturesque Wasatch Mountain range. As a Rivalry Week game, the War on Wasatch doesn't have quite the same ring as the War on I-4.
USF and UCF have the perfect ingredients for mutal contempt.
When UCF wanted to join the Big East, USF leaders successfully blocked them for a few years because the Bulls believed they were the big-time program while the Knights were inferior. USF leaders, impressed with themselves, didn't realize the value in having a competitive rival 90 minutes away.
And, in full disclosure, during that time I once referred to UCF as a "yapping poodle" for thinking it should be on the same level as the Bulls. Knights fans love to remind me of that, and I don't blame them. That's what a rivalry is.
After Big East football folded, the two schools were united in the newly formed American Athletic Conference in 2013, but the Knights never got over the original snub. Let's just say they didn't lobby for USF to join them in the Big 12,.
Because this is Rivalry Week and The War on I-4 is, for the time being, no more, here's a simulation from #EASportsCollegeFootball26 about how @USFFootball might have fared against @UCF_Football pic.twitter.com/YF35fsoTyn
— Joe Henderson (@JHendersonTampa) November 24, 2025
The series, in case you're curious, is 8-6 in UCF's favor. The Knights have won the last six.
One of those losses was a painful one for the Bulls. It was the riveting 49-42 UCF win in 2017. Bulls quarterback Quinton Flowers threw for 503 yards and four touchdowns, but it wasn't enough.
The last game between the two was in 2022. That's when a one-win Bulls team playing for an interim coach and using a freshman quarterback named Byrum Brown came from 21 points down at the half nearly pulled off a miracle.
Brown ran for a 42-yard touchdown to give USF a one-point lead, but the Knights scored with 20 seconds left and won 46-39.
The Knights celebrated like they had just won the Super Bowl, and in a sense they had. That's how you react when you win a rivalry game.
So, no offense Rice Owls. We know you upset the Bulls last year, but it's not the same. As much as USF and UCF may dream of annihilating each other, the truth is they're better off together.
At least it used to happen that way.