It appears UConn head coach Bob Diaco is all in on his self-created rivalry with UCF. After UCF once again showed no interest in acknowledging UConn as a rival by leaving the newly-created rivalry trophy at UConn’s stadium following a win, Diaco is convinced the attention that has been generated supports the idea the rivalry is indeed a real thing.
“The idea worked,” Diaco claimed. “I pose this challenge: What matchup, even including the championship game, has been more widely covered than the Conflict? What matchup? Bring it to my attention, I’m very interested. So an obscure game that would have been meaningless otherwise and had no energy at all for two teams that really never played each other became a national conversation. That’s a bad thing? It definitely filled some papers.”
Did Bob Diaco just try to suggest not even the championship game will get as much coverage of the Civil ConFLiCT? Is he referring to the College Football Playoff national championship game? The American Athletic Conference championship game? The Connecticut AAA Division 5 high school championship game (I don’t even know if that’s a real thing)?
Let me clue you in, Bob. We’re all laughing at you about this. That doesn’t mean in any way we endorse your manufactured rivalry game. We’re all on UCF’s side here. Well, actually, maybe there are dozens of supporters of this so-called rivalry…
It’s clear Diaco is trying to leave his mark on the UConn program. He created this rivalry and trophy, and he’s sticking to it. There is something to be admired for Diaco’s decision to stand by this as strongly as he is. It’s still incredibly silly.
UPDATE: Diaco has declared the “conFLiCT” over. The trophy will not be a part of next year’s contest.
“It was very disappointing to me, it seemed like a fun thing for young people and young men,” Diaco said. “It seemed like a fun intercollegiate piece to a game but apparently not.
“I didn’t create this thing out of nowhere. Did I think of this thing? Yes. I did but this wasn’t one-sided until they decided that it should be.”
