Post Game

#4 Cincinatti used a third quarter resurgence to vanquish #21 Houston and win the American Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday and remain the FBS' sole undefeated team at 13-0. QB Desmond Ridder completed 11 of 17 for 190 yards and three scores and RB Jerome Ford added 187 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns. 

It was the final hurdle the Bearcats had to clear for a realistic shot at the CFP. The selection committee did end up keeping Cincinatti in the #4 slot and will face #1 Alabama in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl on December 31st, 2021. 

Cincinatti is now the first "Group of Five" conference team to make the College Football Playoff. Many consider this to be a litmus test for the committee to gauge how a G5 team would do against "Power 5" playoff teams. If Cincinatti performs badly, the fear is that the CFP selection committee will take that into account when judging other potential G5 playoff candidates. The result could be a playoff dominated by elite teams giving lesser teams no chance to prove themselves on a national stage. This could potentially permanently impact G5 teams in terms of their ability to recruit better players and schedule "Power Five" teams who don't gain any monetary or CFP ranking benefit from playing G5 teams. 

 Still, Cincinatti does have a shot at avoiding that potential narrative should they be competitive or even defeat #1 Alabama in the playoffs. Such a result could challenge the SEC dominance narrative. At the same time, Alabama would no doubt take such a result very personally and therefor Cincinatti should expect to play against an Alabama team that will likely play at a level that far surpasses anything Cincinatti has experienced so far this season. After all, this game gives the feeling of being more than just a semi-final playoff game between the 1 and 4 seed. It's a game in which Alabama will attempt to defend the SEC and Cincinatti will attempt to pave the way for future G5 teams.   

Pre Game

#4 Cincinatti and #21 Houston will battle it out for the American Athletic Conference Championship tonight at 4pm ET. 

The Bearcats enter the game hoping to the be the first group of five conference team to make the breakthrough into the College Football Playoff. While they don't boast a particularly impressive resume, Cincinatti's hopes rest on finishing off their perfect regular season with what would be only their second victory over a ranked team this season. Their first coming against fellow CFP hopeful, Notre Dame. Cincinatti's offense has been dominant scoring more than 35 points in eight games this season, including a 38-24 victory against then Big Ten Championship dark horse Indiana. Cincinatti's defense has also been stout allowing less than 15 points in seven games.

#21 Houston comes into the game hoping to play spoiler to Cincinatti's CFP hopes. While the Cougars offense has also been electric, scoring north of 35 points in eight games, their defense has struggled with some inconsistencies. They shut out FCS opponent Grambling but then gave up 37 points against then #19 SMU and then 42 points the next week to unranked USF. They finished the final three weeks of the season allowing at most 17 points en-route to three dominant victories and a place in the conference championship game.

Most of the question marks in this game will be for Cincinatti who can't have any slip ups if they want to make things difficult for the CFP selection committee. Whether or not they can enter the playoff over a potential 1-loss SEC champion Alabama, will likely depend on Cincinatti's dominance in the AAC Championship. While some believe that a two-loss Alabama could still potentially get into the CFP, a dominant Bearcat performance with an Alabama loss should almost guarantee Cincinatti's spot in the top four.