ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerome Ford envisioned helping Cincinnati win games and a conference title when he transferred there two years ago.

The running back never really thought about facing his former team or being part of the College Football Playoff, though he will do both when the undefeated American Athletic Conference champion Bearcats play defending national champ Alabama in a CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl on Friday.

“It didn’t really cross my mind,” Ford said about Cincinnati becoming the first non-Power Five team to reach the four-team playoff. “The only thing I thought about…is how could I contribute to help win games and win a conference championship. Anything else would have been a plus.”

After playing in only four games in each of his two seasons at Alabama, the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Ford has 1,242 yards and 19 touchdowns rushing with five 100-yard games in his second season at Cincinnati (13-0).

“I’m a Bearcat and I would kind of appreciate it if people stopped calling me 'the Alabama transfer,'” Ford said.

RELATED: Jerome Ford's four TDs lead No. 3 Cincinnati over UCF 56-21
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CINCINNATI — While there might not be "a ton to do in Cincinnati," the city has had some great sports moments in 2021.

The Bearcats smashed college football’s glass ceiling by becoming the first school from a so-called “Group of Five” conference to advance to the sport's four-team playoff.

While in many ways it was the year of the Bearcat, several other highlights happened in Cincinnati sports this year.

Joe Burrow returned from a knee injury earlier than most believed possible. He and former LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase have the Bengals in the hunt for the postseason for the first time since 2015. Chase, defensive end Trey Hendrickson and Joe Mixon were named to the Pro Bowl (with Burrow and four others named alternates).

The Bengals also debuted new stripes for the franchise’s first new look since 2004.

Despite a renaissance season from Joey Votto and all-star nods for outfielders Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker, the Reds failed to make the postseason, running out of gas in September.

The sport shut down in December as the owners locked out the players. The strike season of 1994 was the last time baseball has experienced a work stoppage.

While it may feel like the year of the Bearcat, it was not Cincinnati's day at Cintas Center earlier this month. Xavier beat UC 83-63 in the Crosstown Shootout.

FC Cincinnati opened TQL Stadium this year, but only won once in the West End. The new stadium did welcome back Cincinnati native Rose Lavelle, who scored in the fourth minute in the USWNT's game against Paraguay this September. The Mount Notre Dame graduate also assisted two goals in the 8-0 win.

The Western and Southern Open returned to Mason after a year away due to the pandemic.

Three Tri-state football teams celebrated state championships — Winton Woods, Beechwood and Clinton-Massie. The Warriors routed Akron Archbishop Hoban to capture their second championship ever, while the Tigers and Falcons won close games to earn their hardware.

Mount Notre Dame basketball brought home its eighth state title, while the school's soccer team won its first state championship ever in November.

Trenton native Zach Apple won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics while swimming the anchor leg on the United States men's 4x100m freestyle relay team. Apple, Caeleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni and Becker won the race in 3 minutes, 8.97 seconds, the third-fastest time in history.

The year isn’t over. UC football continues its run to a national title on New Year’s Eve against Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

RELATED: Clinton-Massie wins state title in miraculous fashion
RELATED: Joe Burrow on why team avoided COVID outbreak: 'Fortunately there's not a ton to do in Cincinnati'

CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati's success on the football field hasn't deterred its students from other priorities – like the Bearcats' rivalry with Xavier University.

While UC students were guarding the Oscar Robertson statue outside Fifth-Third Arena on Wednesday night, Xavier's D'Artagnan statue was hit with eggs and slices of cheese.

The incident comes days before UC plays at Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout. The game is Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on FS`1.

In what has become a tradition, UC students were deployed around the Oscar Robertson statue this week in defense of potential Xavier pranksters.

"The week before the Crosstown Shootout, Xavier fans will try to put a (Xavier) jersey on Oscar," Cam Kirzner, an Operations Mangement major, said. "So what we do is camp out all night throughout the week. We run games and activities for students, do giveaways and make sure that Xavier doesn't mess with Oscar."

D'Artagnan was picked as Xavier's mascot in 1925, when the college took the nickname the Musketeers from the classic Alexandre Dumas novel "The Three Musketeers." A statue of D'Artagnan was first placed on campus in 1968. It was replaced with a newer statue in 2000, when Xavier's Cintas Center opened.

The Robertson statue honors the Hall of Fame guard who played with the Bearcats and starred in the NBA with the Cincinnati Royals and the Milwaukee Bucks. He was the first NBA player to average a triple-double in a season and the only player until 2017, when Russell Westbrook duplicated the feat. Robertson led the Bearcats to two Final Fours and won a gold medal with the 1960 Olympic team.

Correction: The last name of Cam Kirzner was misspelled in this article. It has been corrected.

CINCINNATI — As ESPN's College GameDay kicks off, fans brought their best signs to show support for UC Bearcats.

It is all part of the GameDay experience.

Here are some of the best signs our team has seen so far:

Signs this morning ahead of @CollegeGameDay at UC’s Homecoming! So much energy for the Bearcats this morning @WCPO pic.twitter.com/QOYdtYvj1f

— Madeline Ottilie (@OttilieMadeline) November 6, 2021

It’s a nice sign, but according to the committee there are 5 better signs here. pic.twitter.com/ZKb52nR5jv

— Caleb Noe (@CalebNoeTV) November 6, 2021

And so the fun begins! @CalebNoeTV and I are right here with the line of students waiting to get into @CollegeGameDay @wcpo #cincywx pic.twitter.com/R8H06fTexZ

— Jennifer Ketchmark (@KetchmarkWCPO) November 6, 2021

College GameDay kicked off in Clifton live from The Commons at 9 a.m. ESPN opened The Pit area for fans at 6:30 a.m. This is the first time the show's ever been in Cincinnati and UC fans brought a lot of energy Saturday morning.

Fans with the best signs will win two tickets to the game. Following GameDay, UC's homecoming parade will immediately follow.

The Bearcats' catwalk starts in Campus Green around 1 p.m. and the undefeated team will face Tulsa at 3:30 p.m. at Nippert Stadium.

CINCINNATI — When University of Cincinnati head football coach Luke Fickell says he could not do it without his wife, he is telling the truth.

While the coach of the undefeated Bearcats is on the sideline Saturday, Amy Fickell is taking care of their children – getting the kids to football, volleyball and wherever else they need to go.

"It's not any different than any other mom probably. I just do most of it by myself — and there's six of them," Fickell said.

The Fickells' youngest twins, Lakyn and Lucian, are in first grade; Ashton and Aiden, their oldest twins, are in eighth grade; daughter Luca is a junior at Saint Ursula; and son Landon is a freshman at UC. All of the kids have after-school activities.

"My youngest twins just finished their football season last weekend, my oldest twins are in their football playoffs Saturday, my daughter is in her volleyball districts Saturday and then my oldest is, you know, on the football team at UC," Fickell said.

Fickell's day is filled with more than just chauffeuring her children from game to game. On Oct. 28, Fickell finished bible study, picked up her kids from school and headed to UC practice to hand out Halloween candy to the team — getting a chance to see her husband and son.

"You know she has seven kids," Luke Fickell said. "Six real ones and me she calls the seventh, so she's got a lot on her hands."

Fickell said she does not mind the heavy lifting, understanding her husband's difficult job.

"I just kind of get it done here because he's got a lot," Fickell said. "He's got a lot on his plate, so that's kind of just how we work."

WCPO

That can mean Fickell is representing both parents at most of their kids' events.

"I go to football games, and I holler at my boys," Fickell said. "You know, it bugs me just as much as it bugs him when they're not tough, and they're not going full go — I can't stand it. You kind of have to be that little bit of a dad, too, because there isn't a dad there watching."

During the football season, Fickell said, the children do not get to see their dad a lot, maybe seeing him before bed on Wednesday or Thursday nights, but their family motto is "it's about quality, not quantity" — and this family is a team.

"To have our kids be able to do all the things that they do, for her to be able to handle it the best way, knowing that I'm not going to be much of a help in a lot of things...not everybody can do that and not everyone can handle that," Luke Fickell said.

Fickell left UC practice to take her older twins to practice, pick up her daughter from volleyball and — at one point — eat dinner. She does not complain, though, saying she knew what she was getting into.

NEW ORLEANS — Desmond Ridder twice connected with tight end Josh Whyle for touchdowns, and No. 2 Cincinnati remained unbeaten with a 31-12 victory Saturday over a struggling but feisty Tulane squad that kept the game competitive deep into the second half.

Jerome Ford rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown — his 14th this season — for Cincinnati (8-0, 4-0 American Athletic Conference), which briefly trailed in the second quarter and led by just two points at halftime.

Ridder passed for 227 yards and three touchdowns to go with his 47 yards rushing, but also was sacked in the end zone for a safety and intercepted. Whyle caught four passes for 79 yards.

Tulane (1-6, 0-4), which was playing without starting quarterback Michael Pratt because of his concussion during last weeks loss at SMU, lost its sixth straight, but did have a few standout performances.

Running back Tyjae Spears, coming back from a knee injury that wiped out his 2020 season, rushed for 106 yards on 19 carries, highlighted by his 47-yard touchdown in the first half.

Third-string QB Kai Horton, a freshman, started for Tulane because backup Justin Ibieta also was hurt. He completed seven of 16 passes for 79 yards. He was intercepted twice and sacked four times.

The Green Wave regularly employed direct snaps to running backs in hopes of easing the burden on Horton and also throwing off the Bearcats. While that didn’t produce a victory, it kept Cincinnati from putting the game out of reach until the fourth quarter.

After Cincinnati scored first on Ridder’s 16-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Whyle, Tulane surprisingly surged into the lead in the second quarter with a series of successes that began with linebacker Marvin Moody wrapping up Ridder in the back of the end zone for a safety.

On the ensuing possession, Spears’ long TD run made it 9-7.

The Bearcats responded by driving 80 yards for a score in five plays, highlighted by Whyle’s 28-yard catch, Ridder’s 37-yard scramble and Ford’s 3-yard TD run in which he pushed through a pack of defenders.

Cincinnati looked primed to pull away when Evan Prater intercepted Horton’s screen pass in Tulane territory, but Macon Clark intercepted Ridder several plays later, returning it to midfield.

Soon after, Horton fumbled as he was sacked by Malik Vann, but the loose ball bounced up to 6-foot-4, 305-pound offensive lineman Rashad Green, who bowled his way forward for a 15-yard gain.

That set up Merek Glover’s 41-yard field goal to make it 14-12 at halftime.

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CINCINNATI — UC football is making the cash register ring in sports bars and souvenir shops all over town, but what kind of economic impact is Cincinnati getting from a college football program near the top of the national rankings?

That depends on what you mean by impact.

“I’m certain that we are having an impact on our local economy,” said UC Athletic Director John Cunningham. “We’ve sold out three of the last four games. We’re sold out again this week. Certainly, when people are coming into Nippert, they’re spending money in and around Clifton.”

Marty Angiulli can attest to that. The owner of Martino’s Sports Bar on Short Vine said 2021 is shaping up to be his best year in decades, with game-day revenue reaching $20,000 – or three to five times his normal volume.

“This football season, I don’t know what you can compare it to,” he said. “Did Moses parting the Red Sea help the Jewish people? That’s the comparison. I mean, it’s that big.”

Cunningham expects UC sports programs to eclipse last year’s $81 million in total revenue, thanks to increased ticket sales and donations. But he’s yet to see any analysis of whether the Bearcats’ on-the-field success has led to increased enrollment or off-campus spending.

“Obviously, there will be a day and time that we’ll go back and look at the economic impact of this season, but that will happen down the line,” he said. “I know people from Texas and Maryland and New Jersey that come in every week for our games. So, we certainly are driving people from all over the country to our games.”

College sports programs all over the country have quantified the impact of their programs by attaching multipliers to on-campus and off-campus spending. That led the University of Maryland to conclude last September that each Terrapins game “supports an estimated $27.3 million in economic activity in the state of Maryland,” including $6.4 million in labor income and $1.8 million in state and local taxes.

But a 2007 study concluded college football had no discernable impact on employment or personal income in the 63 cities it analyzed.

“Neither the number of home games played, the winning percentage of the local team, nor winning a national championship has a discernible impact on either employment or personal income in the cities where the teams play,” wrote the study’s authors. “While successful college football teams may bring fame to their alma mater, fortune appears to be a bit more elusive.”

On the fame front, UC is more than holding its own, with national media outlets tracking both its rise and the Heisman Trophy potential of quarterback Desmond Ridder.

More than 6.6 million people saw UC’s last three games, according to the ratings tracker ShowBuzzDaily. UC’s win against Notre Dame drew its highest regular-season TV rating since 2012.

On social media, Cunningham said UC has the nation’s fastest-growing Instagram account among college sports programs. And its TikTok account is attracting attention with well-produced videos like this Sept. 20 offering that features wide receiver Tre Tucker.

@gobearcatsfb BACK IN BLACK FOR GAME TWO. #Bearcats #collegefootball #fyp #foryou ♬ SICKO MODE - Travis Scott

“It’s really fun to hear the current students talk about the buzz on TikTok for UC football,” said Roseann Hassey, assistant marketing professor at UC. “We were just talking about it in class yesterday.”

Because of TikTok’s popularity with younger audiences, Hassey thinks UC could be in for an enrollment spike.

“I’ve actually heard that from people in the community, that their children are really interested in UC when they might have been considering going to another Ohio state school,” Hassey said.

“That brand recognition is almost impossible to quantify,” Cunningham said. “We’re on ABC this week, national television. It means we’re in every bar and restaurant in the country, from Anchorage, Alaska, to New York City to Dallas, Texas, right? That’s a big thing. And it helps not only our football program, but it helps every single one of our sports.”