Bob Diaco Won't Be Civil About UCF Not Wanting "Civil Conflict"
By Ty Duffy
UConn invented a rivalry game. Without consulting UCF, they announced the “Civil Conflict” between the schools, unveiling a countdown clock and a trophy. The trophy retroactively added UConn’s 37-29 win last year, but not the 62-17 drubbing the Huskies received the year before, the teams’ only other meeting.
The “Civil Conflict” was coach Bob Diaco’s odd, asinine brainchild. He has no plans to let it drop.
"“Why do I have to call their athletic department to say we’ve got them targeted as our rival, period,” Diaco said on a Monday morning conference call introducing new media policies for the team going forward. “What control over that would they have and what do I care what they think?… If they don’t want to honor our rivalry, we’re not their rival, that’s on them. I don’t control what they want. If they don’t want to be a part of the trophy, I don’t care about that, either. They don’t like the logo … the logo is a university logo. And I took the logo off our marketing.”"
Diaco has set off a wave of groans and facepalms throughout the UConn fanbase with this. This game now will have way more national attention than it would have if UCF had civilly agreed to do UConn a solid and play for a trophy. Of course, the national attention will all be jokes at UConn’s expense…
Perhaps Diaco should have chosen UConn’s other win last season as a jumping off point. A rivalry with SUNY Stony Brook would have at least made geographic sense. The Battle For Long Island Sound!