This is UCF.

The University of Central Florida ended their 2010 football season ranked as No. 25 in the BCS polls and No. 24 in the USA Today rankings.

This is a big deal.

I've never been a huge football fan, and part of the reason I ultimately chose UCF is because there wasn't a heavy emphasis on sports. We're terrible at most sports and play in a bogus conference (Conference USA) against other schools that most have never heard of. The rally by students for home games you see at Florida schools with big sports programs, like UF, UM and FSU is something that we as Knights never could match.

But over the four years I spent on campus I couldn't help get into the school spirit. As a freshman, students had to travel nearly a 1/2 hour to the Citrus Bowl on the outskirts of downtown Orlando (in a terrible area of downtown, mind you,) for football games. Although we never filled even a third of the large, old and worn stadium, students rushed the field when we snapped a 17 game loosing streak against Marshall.

UCF announced that they would be constructing our own stadium on campus my sophomore year. The first game at our shiny new Brighthouse Networks Stadium would be one for our history books. Although we lost to the University of Texas (who was ranked No. 2 at the time,) we held on all game, trailing right behind them (Thank you, Kevin Smith). The spirit in the student section during that game was unbelievable. We all sweat together in the heat of September, shaking our keys each kick off and singing our fight song until our voices went hoarse. Suddenly, there were 50,000 very loud and very clear student voices behind our football team.

During my junior year, I joined the Pegasus Mascot Team, combining my passion of horse back riding with my new found school spirit.

And as I senior, I went to almost every home game.

Now, watching the football season as my first year as an alumni, it's so awesome to see how well UCF is doing. I can't help but smirk that the Gators have hit rock bottom this season as well. Ever since I moved to a more northern part of this state I can't get away from the UF Gator hype. But let's check the polls, gator fans. I don't see you on that top list of 25. And it doesn't help that the UCF mens basketball team recently defeated UF at the Amway Arena, 57-54.

As UCF - the 2010 Conference USA Champs - prepares for the Liberty Bowl game in Memphis I couldn't be more proud to be a UCF Knight.