One thing to keep in mind about UCF and its OOC schedule is that it's pretty challenging to get top, particularly helmet, schools on the calendar. Usually it's on a five year horizon or longer. They did manage to calendar Georgia Tech who some years can be pretty dangerous from the ACC and then Maryland, which usually is a weak sister, but still is a B1G team.
Then the AAC itself has teams that some years are really good such as USF, Houston, Cincy ... this year Memphis, and of course UCF. Sure it's not as tough a schedule you find in a P5 conference. Yet they've made an honest OOC effort over the years: Michigan in 2016, Stanford and South Carolina in 2015, Penn St and Missouri in 2014, etc. Hard to fault 'em.
So, anyway, I agree they should have gotten a shot. Hindsight is 20-20, particularly with that bowl victory over Auburn, and there aren't any easy fixes here. But I would have enjoyed seeing what they could do vs any of the playoff teams (except maybe OU ;^)