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(07-18-2019 12:38 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  

(07-18-2019 08:34 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(07-18-2019 07:04 AM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  

(07-17-2019 11:04 PM)Nittany_Bearcat Wrote:  

(07-16-2019 12:55 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  I wouldn't blame CLF one bit for leaving if he gets the offer for bigger and better things. Knowing these bowls are most likely my end of season reward for going 11-1 or 10-2 has to be depressing.

Yes. It's depressing.

Think about the contrast vs. 2011-2013. The Bearcats won 9 regular season games those years. 9-3 got them trips to either Memphis or Charlotte (solid mid-tier Bowls), along with an SEC or ACC opponent.

There's a pretty clear (and depressing) trajectory in terms of UC Bowl appearances:

(1) The Minter Years. 2 Motor City Bowls, 1 Boise Bowl, 1 New Orleans Bowl. Games against the MAC, Big West or Sun Belt. But that was still great! UC simply appearing in a Bowl game was great in itself.

(2) 2003-2007, the rise. 1 Fort Worth Bowl, 1 International Bowl, 1 Birmingham Bowl. Games against the MAC or C-USA. Not the big leagues, but a couple games were tied in with the Big East and it did feel like a step-up in Bowl quality vs. the previous Bowls.

(3) 2008-2009. Trips to Miami and New Orleans. THE big leagues!

(4) 2010-2013. The aforementioned Charlotte and Memphis Bowls. Solid rewards for a 9-3 team. Respectable ACC and SEC foes.

(5) 2014-2018. 2 Military Bowls and 1 Hawaii Bowl. Bluntly, a step down in quality from Charlotte and Memphis. Those Military Bowls were with 9- and 10-win teams also. Travelling to Hawaii on Christmas Eve is logistically impossible for nearly all UC fans.

(6) 2019-2025. ???

I worry about Cincinnati's future if it is tethered to the AAC beyond 2025. But UC can't force an invite to a Power 5 conference either. Hopefully it works out.

I think we are to going to see changes made to playoff and potential realignment that benefits Cincinnati. If often discussed move to 8 playoff teams includes one G5 spot that is a game changer. If Oklahoma and Texas move on that also changes things in a positive way.

Bowl games are odd. We complain about playing G5 teams in bowls yet want Cincinnati to taken seriously. [b]The top teams in the Mountain West, MAC, C-USA, and Sun Belt would are probably better than every mid pack power conference team.[/b]

This is the vicious nature of college football today. A middle-to-bottom tier P5 schools view UC the same way that we view a Sun Belt school. They have nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing UC; and UC is in the same boat when we play a school from the MAC/CUSA/Sunbelt/MWC. I blame ESPN really for all this hierarchization. In many ways anything below the P5 is akin to the "Untouchable" caste.

Probably true, but beating a 6-6 Va Tech gets you more prestige points nationally than beating a 10-2 Marshall. It is what it is.

It's stupid, sure, but it is what it is.

Nothing stupid about it. That 6-6 VT squad is probably the better team over a 10-2 Marshall that likely lost the only two meaningful games on the schedule.