It was another weekend that saw a couple top 10 teams lose, but we will get to that in a moment. First, let’s discuss one particular team still in my College Football Playoff projections for now and how the CFP Selection Committee is evaluating it: Cincinnati.
The Bearcats came in sixth in the first CFP Rankings released Tuesday night, and there was the usual hue and cry over the mistreatment of it as a non-Power Five school. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, other than that big win at Notre Dame, it’s like committee chairman Gary Barta said, “Who else did they beat?”
Nobody of note. The rest of Cincinnati’s schedule is pretty bad, and that was true before the Tulsa result was added. In fact, when you consider that Navy (2-7), Tulane (1-8) and one of the season’s most disappointing teams in Indiana (2-7) are already on it, Tulsa may have been an upgrade.
However, style points matter. They’ve always mattered, and Cincinnati did not play well against Navy, Tulane and Tulsa. In fact, the Bearcats could have lost a couple of those games, and that will definitely be held against them.
That level of play must change. Cincinnati must look like a playoff team every time it takes the field the rest of the way if it actually wants to be one. There is nothing wrong with a 52-7 win that a 59-7 win wouldn’t cure. You want to play with the likes of Alabama? Beat these teams like Alabama would.
That said, I must draw the line at a particular comment made by from Barta on Tuesday night’s post-release media call. About the Tulane game, he commented that the Green Wave “ran the ball effectively against [the Bearcats]. They started a freshman QB.”
Who cares if Tulane ran the ball well? Tulane had 280 yards of total offense in that game and had averaged 403…
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