2013’s ‘War on I-4’ begins on the web

As the state’s notorious collegiate battle between UF and FSU continues to rage on, a fledgling rivalry may be brewing between USF and UCF.

Over the weekend, some USF students took to social media after an article in UCF’s Knight News featured the website ucfrejects.com that redirected visitors to USF’s homepage.

“I think it’s really upsetting and insulting,” Marisela Maldonado, a junior majoring in biomedical sciences, said. “I know that USF and UCF are rivals, but USF and UCF are neck-and-neck with each other. So I do not see why we are considered rejects.”

Usfrejects.com, a domain created by an unidentified Zach S., however, leads to the McDonald’s careers web page.

Though the USF domain remains, UCF’s expired Monday. As it turns out, ucfrejects.com is not a new
contribution to the Internet.

According to a domain search, the site was created on Sept. 9, 2012.

Students from UCF took to social media via Reddit to post gripes about the discovery of USF’s bookstore selling the shirts with the slogans, “Friends don’t let friends go to UCF” and “Life is too short to be a UCF Knight.”

USF bookstore manager Nick Fagnoni said the shirts are sold to help spark the rivalry that began on the football field in 2005, when the first game of what is now dubbed, the “War on I-4” was played.

“They’re among our most popular sellers,” Fagnoni said. “A lot of people buy them and stop by to look at them. We’ll be getting new stuff closer to the time when USF plays UCF.”

UCF student Alexandra Morales, a sophomore majoring in pre-nursing, said she feels the contention is just like any other friendly school rivalry.

“At the end of the day, it is just another school rivalry,” Morales said. “It is just another school tradition. The websites and T-shirts are
probably only now gaining traction due to football season.”

The Bulls have won every football game played against the Knights. The battle will leave the Internet and return to the field when USF travels to Bright House Networks Stadium on Nov. 29.