It's About Fucking Time

Forgive me for the verbiage in this one, I’m several drinks deep on Saturday night.

Cincinnati has done it. For the first time since 1984, a non-Power program is going to have an actual, honest-to-God chance at competing for the national title in college football. The Bearcats are unbeaten, they have victories over Houston, Notre Dame and SMU, and as of just moments ago, they’ve secured a playoff spot.

For this specific season, it’s obviously well-deserved. More than well-deserved. The Bearcats have as many good wins as anyone in the nation and unlike everyone else, they’ve yet to take a loss.

They’re underseeded, they’re going to have a difficult road to the national title, but they’re in. And given the history, that’s just about all we could possibly ask for.

That history, though, is what makes this so special. Cincinnati is following in the footsteps of so many spectacular teams that should have had this chance. The Bearcats a year ago had a case. UCF in 2017. Houston and Western Michigan in 2015. Marshall in 2014. NIU in 2012, Cincinnati in 2009, all of those great Boise State teams, 2006 Hawaii, even 1998 Tulane.

They deserved a shot, just as much as these Bearcats do, but they didn’t get it. The system is rigged again them in a way that often borders on soiling the entire sport. In some seasons, like the 2020 campaign, it did.

But this year? With that win over the Fighting Irish and a dominant showing against a damn good Houston team? And with chaos all over the sport? Nothing - not institutional corruption, ignorant fans and media, or full-on ratfucking - can keep Cincinnati out.

The Bearcats are going to get their shot, and they can do so as some small semblance of vindication for all those that came before.

Their result? Honestly, I don’t really think it matters. Cincinnati will compete because Cincinnati is one of the four best teams in the nation. I don’t know that it’ll win, but I know it will prove that it deserves to be there, just as it has in every game for the last two years.

And we can only hope that the powers that be will watch, and they’ll realize what they’ve been missing for so many decades about this level. The Group of Five is for real, it’s important, and it deserves respect.

Finally, for the first time in decades, one of its own has finally received it. Go Cats.