Any way you slice it, Auburn played the national champion last season -- whether it was College Football Playoff champion Alabama or undefeated UCF, which claimed the title despite being left out of the CFP.
In the eyes of Auburn linebacker Deshaun Davis, though, only one of those teams has a rightful claim to the championship.
"Personally, you know, I thought that was a little extra," Davis said of UCF's claimed title on Thursday at SEC Media Days in Atlanta. "Really, there's only one national champion, and that's Alabama. As much as I hate to say it, they are national champions."
UCF staked a claim at the title after finishing the 2017 season as the only undefeated team in the nation, going 13-0 on the year. The Knights won the American Athletic Conference and earned a New Year's Six bowl berth as the nation's highest-ranked Group of Five team -- but wasn't enough to make the four-team CFP field.
That led to a New Year's Day matchup with Auburn -- the only team to defeat Alabama last season -- in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where UCF knocked off the Tigers, 34-27 to complete its undefeated campaign.
"It was kind of hard to get up for that game knowing that we should've been playing in the College Football Playoff while two teams that we, like I was just saying, we beat convincingly were playing in the College Football Playoff and ended up playing in the national championship," Davis said. "They took that game way more seriously than we did. That's not taking any credit from them; they're a good football team and they have every right to walk around with their head high.... You can't take anything from them; they won a game and we lost."
What followed was a months' long campaign of UCF touting itself as the national champion, complete with a victory parade at Disney World, a decree from Florida governor Rick Scott recognizing the Knights as national champions, a banner on the wall of the team's practice field and state-sanctioned license plates calling UCF "undefeated champions."
"When I was a little kid my dad always told me to take respect for the teams that beat you," Auburn defensive tackle Dontavius Russell said. "UCF beat us, so I respect them for that. But it's hard to really give you an answer for that. You have to respect that Alabama won the playoff, but you also have to acknowledge the fact that UCF won all their games. It's a sticky topic to get into."
It was a little more cut and dry in Davis' mind.
"I'm not a moral victory type of guy, so even if we were to go undefeated and not win it, I wouldn't be walking around saying we were national champions," Davis said. "Obviously, we didn't do something to be the only national champion. I don't really say we're SEC West champions because we didn't strap up every day to say we're SEC West champions; our goal at the beginning of the year was to win the SEC and we know that if we won the SEC we would have a huge right to say we deserved to be in the College Football Playoff, and Georgia did, which is why they were in there. We fell short of that goal and we're trying to get back there."
Alabama, meanwhile, rebounded from its Iron Bowl loss to Auburn and defeated Clemson in the national semifinal followed by an exhilarating win against Georgia in the CFP championship game to take home another national title.
For Davis and many of Auburn's players, that championship game between the Tigers' two biggest rivals -- both of whom they claimed convincing regular-season wins against -- was particularly difficult to stomach.
"It was extremely tough, man," Davis said. "I can tell you that was really hard to watch knowing that we played those two teams and we beat them kind of convincingly, but you can say Georgia won when it counted. You give them all the credit. They bounced back and they prepared for us very well and got the win when it counted to put themselves in position for the national championship. I tip my hat to both of those teams. They're two great universities and they're two of our biggest rivals. Hopefully we can be in that position next year."
Davis was also asked about whether he thinks a team should have to win its conference to make the CFP -- something Alabama, which didn't even win the SEC West, didn't do last season -- and whether he thought Auburn would be afforded that same opportunity if the shoe was on the other foot. The senior linebacker said the former issue is tough to speak on because he's not on the playoff committee, though when pressed for his thoughts, he admitted he believes a prerequisite for making the four-team field should be winning your conference championship.
As for whether Auburn would have made the playoff if it was in Alabama's situation last season?
"Honestly, I would have to say no, but that speaks volume on Alabama's program and the things that Nick Saban does for that team," Davis said. "Over the years they've always been one of the best teams in the country, they always have one of the top recruiting classes and they have a lot of respect in our league and around the nation, so I mean, we just have to get to that level. Honestly, I don't think if we were in that situation -- if we were undefeated and lost the last game -- we would've got that same respect to play in the College Football Playoffs.
"How you control all that is by winning. If you win every game, you don't have to worry about it and put it in the College Football Playoff committee's hands. Hopefully we can do that this season."
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
from Auburn Sports Impact http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2018/07/deshaun_davis_ucf_title_claim.html
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