The UCF Knights may not have been invited to play in the College Football Playoff, but they were not totally shut out by publications selection national champions.

Had the UCF Knights had their undefeated season a few decades ago, claiming the national championship wouldn’t seem to strange. Plenty of big programs have done so on the back of a single publication, before the BCS and now, College Football Playoff, was implemented.

Of course, UCF didn’t wait for anyone to dub them champions. The Knights have already declared themselves the national champs, as the only undefeated team in FBS.

Now, they have some media backing. It is not, however, a publication that you’d normally go to for your sports news and takes.

The NDA Journal, the official magazine of the Nevada Dental Association, has been naming college football national champions since 2002. They occasionally go along with the consensus picks, but there have been some serious variations as well.

In 2003, the dentists went with USC over LSU. They handled the controversial 2004 season with a three-way tie between undefeated Auburn, USC, and Utah. In 2006, undefeated Boise State got the nod over Florida. The Nevada dentists often opt for undefeated teams where possible.

So far during the College Football Playoff, however, the NDA has approved of the winner from the four-team field. That changed this year.

After the 13-0 season, the Nevada Dental Association has declared UCF as national champions. Reddit CFB posted a screenshot from the journal cover.

It's decided: The Nevada Dental Association has declared the @UCFKnights to be National Champs! #ChargeOn ?

They've been disclosing a champion since 2002 (via /u/joebruin32) pic.twitter.com/LwNycSuQKq — RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 31, 2018

Reddit user joebruin32 posted a screenshot from the magazine’s write-up. His full thread can be found here.

UCF approves of the decision. It responded to the Reddit CFB tweet.

Congratulations on your dentist-approved national championship, UCF. Hopefully they have a trophy they can send over.

[Reddit]