They don't want to be a directional school and "Central" is a pretty weak direction.
Their own fault.
The Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) was founded in '58 by NASA folks and astronauts to support the burgeoning space program a few miles up the road in Cape Canaveral. It opened as Brevard Engineering College, a small, private school in Melbourne, and later changed its name to FIT in '66.
That school isn't UCF though. That school still exists as FIT in Melbourne. UCF just totally ripped off FIT's name and origin story.
UCF was originally Florida Technological University because they couldn't be Florida Institute of Technology. Not only did they rip off most of the name, they ripped off the history of the connection to NASA. Yeah, part of the impetus for the creation of UCF was the need for engineers to work for NASA, but FIT was the original and did it for years before UCF.
Anyway...
"Florida Technological University" could have gone by Florida Tech (like Georgia Tech or Virginia Tech) which doesn't feel so directional. But they chose to switch their name to University of Central Florida. That doesn't sound prestigious though. So they think just UCF sounds cooler. They get defensive about it and insist on UCF even though their sh!tty diplomas clearly say "University of Central Florida" on them.
It gets worse.
They were originally the Citronauts. As in Citrus-Astronauts. Like an astronaut with an orange for a body. No, I'm not kidding (and yes, it does feel like they at least partially ripped off Syracuse with that disaster). So they soon switched it to the Golden Knights. Then they ditched the Golden and became just the Knights. Too many other colorful Knights out there, like the Black Knights of Army and the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers so they figured just "Knights" would sound more prestigious without the gold.
Are you feeling a trend?
Just in case you thought I was making this sh!t up...I give you the "Florida Technological University Citronaut"
Alex.