On New Year’s Day, the UCF Knights defeated the Auburn Tigers 34-27 in the Peach Bowl. The win ensured the Knights will be the only Division I college football team to finish the season undefeated, posting a 13-0 record.

UCF has been one of the best stories of this college football season. Just two years ago, they finished the 2015 season with a winless record of 0-12. Now they are undefeated and considered one of the best teams in the country. 51 players on their roster experienced both a winless and a perfect season.

But even though their season is over, UCF’s story isn’t over just yet.

Since the Peach Bowl victory, the UCF team, fans and school administration have continuously referred to themselves as “National Champions.” The UCF football team’s Twitter page header has “2017 National Champions” on it. The school’s athletic director has stated that the football program is claiming a National Championship for the 2017 season, despite not getting into the college football playoff or the national championship game. UCF will hang a national championship banner in their stadium and hold a parade for the team on Sunday.

The move has divided the college football community, with some praising UCF’s actions as a fair reward for their spectacular season, while others are criticizing the move as UCF plays in a non-power conference and are undeserving of the title for a number of reasons.

One reason is their strength of schedule. According to ESPN’s RPI rankings, UCF’s strength of schedule ranks 77th in the nation. Their only win against a ranked team before the Auburn game was against Memphis.

However, claiming an unofficial National Championship is not an unprecedented move in college football. Before the BCS was created in 1998 to help determine one universal national champion, most seasons had more than one team crowned as the national champion. Scott Frost, who was UCF’s head coach this past season, was the quarterback of the 1997 Nebraska team that was declared co-National Champions that season with Michigan. Many programs still acknowledge unnoficial national championships. Alabama recognizes their 1941 team as national champions despite finishing that season 9-2 and ranked 20th in the final AP poll.

We’ll never know if the 2017 UCF team could be able to beat the likes of Georgia or Alabama in the playoff for the national championship. But we shouldn’t lose sight of what this national championship campaign by UCF is trying to accomplish.

Many college football fans are still heavily critical of the current four team playoff format. Many people think a four team playoff is not big enough to crown a true champion, as many worthy teams get left out. Also, the new format puts the highest ranked team from a non-power conference in one of the six major “New Years Six” bowl games. This system makes it virtually impossible for a small school like UCF to make it into the four team playoff.

The national championship campaign by UCF is not just a way to reward the team for their hard work this season. It’s an effort to bring attention to the current playoff format and how hard it makes teams like UCF have a shot at competing for a legitimate national championship, and an attempt to change the format to make sure small schools have a fairer chance at making the playoff. UCF is standing up for the little guy and attempting to change the current system so small teams won’t face the same dilemma they are currently facing.

There isn’t any indication that the playoff will expand to six or eight teams in the near future. But the issue is being raised more and more, which is exactly what teams like UCF want.