The University of Cincinnati football team has a strong chance to be the first representative from the Group of Five to debut in the top four of the College Football Playoff rankings.
Following Saturday's 31-12 win at Tulane, the Bearcats (8-0, 4-0 American Athletic Conference) are ranked No. 2 in both the Associated Press Top 25 poll and the USA TODAY Sports AFCA coaches poll.
Recap:'A win is a win': No. 2 Cincinnati scores 17 unanswered points to drop Tulane, 31-12
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But beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the only rankings that will matter are the ones from the College Football Playoff selection committee.
The 13-member committee will weigh the other rankings, records, strength of teams' schedules, roster health and talent and other factors as it begins to decide who will be the four teams that will have a chance at competing for a national championship.
The College Football Playoff begins Dec. 31 with one semifinal matchup at the Cotton Bowl and the other at the Orange Bowl. The CFP National Championship Game will take place Jan. 10, 2022, in Indianapolis.
Tuesday's rankings will be the first of six released by the committee. The committee members will meet in person on Mondays and Tuesdays, revealing their rankings each week on ESPN.
So where will the committee rank the Bearcats?
Entering last season, no Group of Five team had been ranked higher than No. 14 in the first playoff rankings of the season since the rankings started in 2014. No Group of Five team had been ranked higher than No. 8 in any playoff rankings. But last season's Cincinnati squad shattered the glass ceiling and debuted at No. 7 in the first CFP rankings.
The Bearcats went 9-0 and won the first AAC championship in program history en route to finishing No. 8 in the final CFP rankings. Cincinnati ran through a schedule that featured just one team that finished in the final playoff rankings (No. 24 Tulsa).
This season's Bearcats are again undefeated and boast a road win over Notre Dame, which is ranked No. 8 in both polls.
Cincinnati is the only team in the FBS with both a top-10 scoring offense and a top-10 scoring defense.
The UC offense, which ranks ninth in scoring (39.9 points per game), is led by fifth-year senior Desmond Ridder, the winningest active quarterback in the FBS. Ridder, who is 39-5 as a starter, is a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, which is presented to the best player in college football.
The Bearcats also have a running back in junior Jerome Ford whose 14 rushing touchdowns this season are third most in the nation.
Defensively, the "Blackcats" are ranked second in scoring, allowing 14.2 points per game. That trails only top-ranked Georgia's 6.6 points per contest. UC also has 14 interceptions on the year, which is second in the FBS.
Cincinnati defensive coordinator Mike Tressel has two corners in graduate student Coby Bryant and junior Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner who are both semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award, which is presented annually to the top defensive back in college football. UC graduate linebacker Darrian Beavers is a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, which is given to the nation's top linebacker.
Cincinnati has the record, players and signature win against a top-tier opponent. Their overall résumé may not stack up to some other Power Five teams, but if the Bearcats aren't included in the committee's first top four on Tuesday, committee chair Gary Barta will have a lot of questions to answer, as the decision could delegitimize the entire selection process.
The CFP selection committee includes Mitch Barnhart (athletics director, University of Kentucky), Barta (athletics director, University of Iowa), Paola Boivin (former sports columnist and professor at Arizona State University), Tom Burman (athletics director, University of Wyoming), Charlie Cobb (athletics director, Georgia State University), Boo Corrigan (athletics director, North Carolina State University), Rick George (athletics director, University of Colorado), Will Shields (former All-American offensive lineman, University of Nebraska), Gene Taylor (athletics director, Kansas State University), Joe Taylor (vice president for athletics and community wellness, Virginia Union University), John Urschel (former All-American offensive lineman, Penn State University), Rod West (former Notre Dame linebacker and tight end and group president of utility operations for Entergy Corporation) and Tyrone Willingham (former head coach at Stanford University, Notre Dame and the University of Washington).
In an effort to avoid bias, members will be recused from voting on or discussing teams with which they are affiliated.
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