Joel Klatt gives stern warning to Cincinnati, Bearcat fans

The Cincinnati Bearcats, their fans, and fans of College Football Playoff chaos, finally got their moment on Tuesday. The Bearcats climbed into the number four spot, making them one of four teams in the College Football Playoff if it started this week. However, FOX College Football analyst, Joel Klatt, has a few words of caution to share with Cincinnati and those rooting for them.

While a guest on Colin Cowherd’s show, The Herd, Klatt gave a warning to Bearcat nation and their fans based on previous history of the College Football Playoff.

“Everyone’s like, oh we did it. The group of five is in the top four. Cincinnati, all they gotta do is win,” Klatt said. “Hold on a second. And I’m not arguing that Cincinnati shouldn’t go, all I’m saying is, ye of small memory in 2014; in the first iteration of this playoff, TCU was included in the top four in the next to last poll. You know what they did? They won by 50 that week and were dropped out of the top four. So just be careful, all I’m saying is Cincinnati fans this is not in your hands. Even if you win out, there are scenarios where like I said Alabama loses Iron Bowl and beats Georgia.

“There are all sorts of, what if Oklahoma State rolls out there and begins to do to Oklahoma, this week and potentially Baylor next week, what they have done to everyone over the last three weeks. Which is play incredible defense and win by upwards of two and three scores.”

The TCU Horned Frogs team that Klatt is referring to were co-winners of the Big 12 conference, with Baylor. At that time, the Big 12 did not have a championship game like the other power five conferences at the end of the season. With the College Football Playoff committee expressing that the lack of an outright conference championship winner affected their decision, the Big 12 resumed having a conference championship game in 2017. 

The Bearcats are in, finally

Luke Fickell and the Cincinnati Bearcats made history on Tuesday night.

For the first time since the inception of the College Football Playoff, a Group of Five program was included as one of the top four teams in the committee’s rankings, and that team — as many suspected — was the Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati has long been on the outside of the College Football Playoff rankings looking in. And thats despite gaining an AP Poll ranking as high as No. 2 this season. However, with the loss of a former top-four team in Oregon, a spot opened up, and Fickell’s Bearcats were slotted in at No. 4.

Fickell led Cincinnati to its best win of the season, and one of the best of his entire tenure in Week 4, when Cincinnati took to South Bend and defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 24-13 on their home turf. Since then, the Bearcats have had a handful of dominant wins, but a few close calls — a seven-point win over Navy and an eight-point win over Tulsa, to name a couple. Against SMU, though, Cincinnati left no doubt and set itself up nicely for the AAC Championship game.

First, Cincinnati will have to defeat ECU on the road in the final regular-season game of the year. The next task — the AAC Championship game — would add another strong win to Cincinnati’s resume, if they’re able to pull it off, as the Bearcats would face Houston, which is currently 10-1.

Assuming they can get by Houston, some believe Cincinnati has solidified a spot in the playoff.