University of Central Florida athletic director proclaims team national champs after bowl win

Despite being the only undefeated FBS team in the nation this season, UCF was not given the chance to take part in the College Football Playoff.

That didn't stop athletic director Danny White from proclaiming the team national champs on Monday after the Golden Knights beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl to move to 13-0.

"National champs. Undefeated," White said to the camera in a video on the team's Twitter account.

White called out the CFP selection committee earlier this season for UCF's low standing. The Golden Knights entered Monday's bowl game ranked 12th despite their perfect record.

Outgoing coach Scott Frost was also critical of the CFP committee following UCF's win.

"It wasn't right," said Frost. "I was watching [the selection show] every week, the committee sitting in a room and deciding that this two-loss team must be better than UCF because UCF is in the American (conference), or this three-loss team must be better than UCF.

"It looked like a conscious effort to me to make sure that they didn't have a problem if they put us too high and a couple teams ahead of us lost. And oh, no, now we have to put them in a playoff? But we just beat that beat two playoff teams and lost to another one by six points, and we beat them by seven."

Auburn, ranked seventh entering Monday's game, beat CFP participants Georgia and Alabama during the regular season.

"Auburn is a great team," Frost said. "I'm not taking anything away from them. I give them a ton of credit. But these guys deserve everything they get, and they deserve more credit from the committee than what they got."

Before beating Auburn, UCF had just one win over a team ranked in the committee's top 25: No. 20 Memphis.

UCF plays outside the Power 5 in the American Athletic Conference.