The Cincinnati Bearcats first-ever game in the College Football Playoff sure won't be an easy one. UC will face one of the blue-blood programs in college football in the Alabama Crimson Tide, which also boasts one of the top coaches in the sport's history, Nick Saban.
Alabama will enter the semifinal Cotton Bowl game (3:30 p.m. ESPN) with a 12-1 overall record and a 7-1 mark in the Southeastern Conference. The Tide rolled off seven straight wins, including beating Georgia in the SEC championship game, after a 41-38 loss at Texas A&M on Oct. 9.
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It will be the seventh CFP appearance for Alabama, which has an 8-3 record and national titles in 2015, 2017 and 2020 in the playoff era.
Saban is in his 15th season at Alabama, where he has a 177-24 career record. He has guided the Crimson Tide to national titles in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020. He also won a national title at LSU in 2003.
How do Cincinnati and Alabama stack up historically?
The Bearcats have actually played football longer than the Crimson Tide. UC fielded squads that played from 1885-87, and played its first intercollegiate football game in 1888, a 0-0 tie with Miami University.
Since then, the Bearcats have played as an independent, as well as having been a member of the Ohio Athletic Conference, Buckeye Athletic Association, Mid-American Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Conference USA, Big East Conference and its current American Athletic Conference.
The Bearcats have an all-time record of 658-592-50.
Alabama had its inaugural team in 1892. The Crimson Tide played as an independent until joining the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1895 before joining the Southern Conference in 1922. The Tide became charter members of the Southeastern Conference in 1933, where it still plays today.
The all-time record for Alabama sits at 941–332–43 with claims to 13 national titles in the poll-era, and five before the poll-era.
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What is the series history between UC and Alabama?
The last time the two teams met, the Crimson Tide came out on top 45-7 in a game played in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 17, 1990.
The Bearcats are 0-5 all time against Alabama, with four of the five meetings taking place in Alabama. The only time the two teams met in Cincinnati, the Tide came away with a 29-7 win on Nov. 17, 1984.
Only once did UC have the opportunity to face legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant – a 21-3 loss on Oct. 23, 1982.
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Alabama has recruited some Cincinnati prep talent
Current freshman defensive back DeVonta Smith played in high school for La Salle, but he's not the only player from the Cincinnati area to have made the trip to Tuscaloosa recently.
Fellow former Lancer Derek Kief played receiver for Alabama from 2014-18 where he became a special teams standout. CHCA grad Brandon Moore was a tight end and lineman for the Crimson Tide who graduated in 2016. And Lakota West standout Ryan Kelly played on the offensive line through 2015, before becoming a Pro Bowl NFL player.
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Is Nick Saban related to Lou Saban? Maybe?
Long-time Bearcats fans will remember short-time UC athletic director Lou Saban. Lou lasted 19 days as AD before becoming head football coach at the University of Miami in 1976.
Meanwhile, the Alabama coach's full name is Nicholas Lou Saban Jr.
So are the two related? It's hard to tell.
A 2005 article titled 'Sabans know coaching' calls them distant cousins. In an article about Lou after his death in 2009, his wife, Joyce, said the two men might have been second cousins but the families weren’t sure if they were related.
So they might be related, but nobody can say for sure.
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