ESPN analysts discuss Cincinnati's historic College Football Playoff ranking

Luke Fickell and the Cincinnati Bearcats made history on Tuesday night.

For the first time since the inception of the College Football Playoff, a Group of Five program was included as one of the top four teams in the committee’s rankings, and that team — as many suspected — was the Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati has long been on the outside of the College Football Playoff rankings looking in, despite gaining an AP Poll ranking as high as No. 2 this season. However, with the loss of a former top-four team in Oregon, a spot opened up, and Fickell’s Bearcats were slotted in at No. 4.

It’s a significant achievement for 11-0 Cincinnati, and ESPN analyst David Pollack argued that it may have been an easy decision for the College Football Playoff committee. Not only did Oregon win, but Cincinnati left no doubt; after a number of closer-than-expected wins, Cincinnati blew out an eight-win SMU team 48-14, thanks to a 274-yard, three-touchdown day by quarterback Desmond Riddler.

“First thing, they took care of business,” Pollack said of Cincinnati on ESPN’s College Football Playoff rankings reveal. “They looked dominant against SMU. We’ve been waiting for this, right? We’ve been waiting for them to put it all together, so they handled that. Now you look at your ranking — it’s hard to go, ‘Look at the possibilities.'”

Fickell led Cincinnati to its best win of the season, and one of the best of his entire tenure in Week 4, when Cincinnati took to South Bend and defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 24-13 on their home turf. Since then, the Bearcats have had a handful of dominant wins, but a few close calls — a seven-point win over Navy and an eight-point win over Tulsa, to name a couple. Against SMU, though, Cincinnati left no doubt and set itself up nicely for the AAC Championship game.

First, Cincinnati will have to defeat ECU on the road in the final regular-season game of the year. The next task — the AAC Championship game — would add another strong win to Cincinnati’s resume, if they’re able to pull it off, as the Bearcats would face Houston, which is currently 10-1.

Assuming they can get by Houston, Kirk Herbstreit believes Cincinnati has solidified a spot in the playoff; regardless of whether Alabama beats Georgia in the SEC Championship game, which would keep both SEC teams in the top four.

“The biggest thing that we’ve learned tonight is that Cincinnati, with two games left — and especially next week with Houston, we just talked about how Houston is gaining momentum and playing with confidence and a dangerous team — I think the committee will really respect that game, if Cincinnati is able to win it,” Herbstreit said. “I think Cincinnati is in a really good spot to win their next two regardless of what happens around them, and I think they’ll be in. I think it’s just debatable whether they get up to three or if they stay at four, no matter what happens. So, that’s big that they’re at four now. I thought maybe you’d have to see them have to wait to continue to see if they beat Houston in the final week of the year, if they do win that game.

‘I think this is great news for Luke Fickell and the Bearcats. Now, they’ve just got to hold serve and keep winning games.”