To no surprise, Alabama — who defeated Georgia 26-23 in overtime to win the national title on Monday night — finished the season as the No. 1 team in the college football AP Poll.
To perhaps some surprise, though, the Crimson Tide were not unanimously the No. 1 team, as 13-0 UCF received four first-place votes in the poll. Those four voters have since identified themselves, and given their own explanations for why they put UCF No. 1 in the poll.
Safid Deen — who covers Florida State for the Orlando Sentinel — posted about his decision on Twitter, saying this: "If it's not about winning and losing, what are we really doing here, fam?"
Ryan Aber of The Oklahoman also revealed his vote on Twitter. Aber's logic was that UCF beat Auburn and that Auburn beat both Alabama and Georgia, while UCF didn't lose any game this season.
In response to Aber, Ed Daigneault of the Republican-American in Connecticut said that he too had voted UCF as the No. 1 team in the nation.
Sam McKewon of the Omaha World Herald was the final of the four voters, with his rational essentially boiling down to UCF being undefeated.
Even with the four votes, UCF still only finished sixth in the AP Poll. Of course, "only sixth" maybe relative here, as UCF fans are likely a bit excited that they got some recognition in the AP Poll when they hadn't gotten much all season in the College Football Playoff rankings.
The final AP Poll for the 2017-18 college football season can be seen here.
