The Civil Conflict (sometimes styled as the conFLiCT) was the name given by former

UConn Huskies football The UConn Huskies football team is a college football team that represents the University of Connecticut in the sport of American football. The team competes in NCAA Division I FBS as an independent. Connecticut first fielded a team in 1896 and ...

head coach

Bob Diaco Robert Albert Diaco (born February 19, 1973) is an American American football, football coach and a former linebacker. He is the defensive line coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels football, North Carolina Tar Heels of the Atlantic Coast Confer ...

to Connecticut's annual matchup against the

UCF Knights football The UCF Knights football team represents the University of Central Florida in the sport of American football. The Knights compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are a ...

team of the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in unincorporated area, unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. ...

. The teams first met in 2013 as members of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

History

UCF and UConn first met in 2013 after UCF left

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

and joined the

. The first mention of the rivalry and associated trophy occurred after Connecticut's 37–29 victory over UCF in November 2014, which was Diaco's first FBS win as Connecticut head coach. The 2014 game also broke UCF's 11-game winning streak in conference play. In a press statement Diaco said "We're excited about this game. I mean it. I'm excited to continue this game. With all admiration and respect. All admiration and respect for Central Florida and Coach O'Leary. They're spectacular. But we're excited about this North/South battle. You want to call it the Civil Conflict?" UCF head coach

George O'Leary George Joseph O'Leary (born August 17, 1946) is a former American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 1994 to 2001 and the UCF Knights from 2004 to 20 ...

responded with "My experience is you’re more likely to have a rivalry against a team closer to where you live,” he said. “When you go 10 states away, I think it’s hard." UCF's traditional

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

has been with the University of South Florida located 90 miles away in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, while UCF and UConn are 1,214 miles apart. In response to this statement, Diaco released a statement of his own a week later that same week saying "They don't get to say whether they are our rival or not. We might not be their rival, but they don't get to say whether they are our rival—that is for us to decide."

Trophy

In June 2015, Diaco had a trophy built for the series and announced it on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. UCF had not been aware of it beforehand. The Knights' head coach and interim athletic director

dismissed both the trophy and the motivations for a rivalry between the two teams. Diaco responded by saying, "They don't get to say whether they are our rival or not." The ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

'' said that Diaco created the "worst rivalry in sports history." The teams played three times during Diaco's tenure as head coach and twice following his announcement of the trophy. UConn won in 2014 and 2015. UCF won the 2016 game, and proceeded to exit the field without acknowledging or accepting the trophy. The trophy was then purportedly crated and transported back to Connecticut. Following that game, Diaco said he was "shelving the venture". In 2016, UCF head coach

Scott Frost Scott Andrew Frost (born January 4, 1975) is an American football coach and player who currently serves as the head football coach for UCF Knights football, UCF. He was the head football coach at the Nebraska Cornhuskers football, University o ...

asked UConn not to bring the trophy and that UCF was officially opting out of the rivalry game. UConn elected to ignore Frost's request and brought the trophy to the 2016 game anyway. UCF went on to beat UConn that year 24–16, however the UCF team did not claim the trophy and it was left unattended on the UCF sideline after the game. Diaco was fired as head coach of UConn at the end of the 2016 season after an 11–26 record over his three seasons as head coach;

Randy Edsall Randy Douglas Edsall (born August 27, 1958) is an American former American football, football coach who recently served as the head football coach for UConn Huskies football, Connecticut from 1999 to 2010 and again from 2017 until his abrupt reti ...

, who replaced Diaco, elected to not continue the supposed rivalry. After leaving UConn, Diaco stated that UCF knew about the Conflict and they had been engaged prior to the announcement of the rivalry by UConn. UConn women's basketball head coach

Geno Auriemma Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. He holds the NCAA basketball records for wins and winning percentage with a mi ...

said the rivalry "might have been the dumbest thing in the history of sports." UConn Athletic Director David Benedict, who himself never officially acknowledged the rivalry or the trophy, was asked in 2017 about the trophy's whereabouts. He replied, "I honestly don't know. That trophy was there before I got there. I believe that trophy was commissioned and paid for by coach Diaco. And therefore if it left with him, I don't know that, but if it did that's fine." During the 2017 meeting in Orlando, the trophy and the claimed rivalry continued to be a subject of ridicule, and the whereabouts of the original trophy were still unknown. On the eve of the 2021 matchup, UCF posted a video showing what was believed to be an "imposter" trophy on the field at the FBC Mortgage Stadium.

Civil Conflict game results

References

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