The undefeated University of Cincinnati football team entered the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2021 season at No. 6.
The ranking, which was released Tuesday night as part of the 13-member CFP selection committee's first of six rankings this season, is the highest for a Group of Five team since the rankings began in 2014.
The committee had never ranked a Group of Five team higher than No. 7, which was the Bearcats' ceiling last year, before ultimately finishing No. 8.
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Cincinnati (8-0, 4-0 American Athletic Conference) crashed through that ceiling Tuesday but is still outside of the four-team playoff despite being ranked No. 2 in both the Associated Press Top 25 poll and the USA TODAY Sports AFCA coaches poll.
The committee ranked fellow unbeaten Georgia (8-0) at No. 1, Alabama (7-1) at No. 2, Michigan State (8-0) at No. 3 and Oregon (7-1) at No. 4.
Ohio State (7-1) is No. 5 in the committee's first rankings.
Both Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell and senior quarterback Desmond Ridder said earlier on Tuesday that they had no intentions of watching the rankings. Ridder said he was invited to appear on the ESPN broadcast to speak on behalf of the Bearcats but "respectfully passed."
"As much as we want to be on there (CFP rankings show), that's not something we're focused on right now," Ridder said. "If it was a show about the American Athletic Conference standings, I probably would've joined it because we can't do anything without these next four games and then the conference championship game. We're excited and blessed to be a part of the show and be able to have our name and program on the show, but we're just worried about this week and the coming weeks ahead."
Bearcats linebacker Darrian Beavers, one of 16 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, presented annually to the top linebacker in college football, told The Enquirer on Tuesday that all Cincinnati needs to do to earn a playoff spot is take care of business the rest of the way.
"If we continue to win out and continue to do what we know we can do, the committee has nothing. They'll have to put us in," he said.
Cincinnati, which is one of six undefeated teams left in the FBS, boasts a road win over No. 10 Notre Dame (7-1). UC is the only AAC team in the rankings.
The Bearcats are the only FBS team with both a top-10 scoring offense (ninth) and a top-10 scoring defense (two), They will look to stay unbeaten Saturday against Tulsa (3-5, 2-2). The game, which will serve as Cincinnati's homecoming, is set to kickoff at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
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