Both teams do. Win their remaining games and they are headed to the BCS Bowl. Nothing like having that control. Nothing as scary as well.
Some good news. Lots picking against Pitt. Mandel at SI.com as well as most of the CBS Sports group along with Brian Bennett and Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com are going with Cinci. In a game that doesn’t seem to have a very clear favorite, I always feel a little better to see more going against Pitt.
Of course, Orson and Holly have found themselves under the spell of the ‘stache.
An advanced conversation with Coach Wannstedt and LeSean.
A Cinci columnist tries to justify the lack of interest by the city considering all things.
No one knows what the time frame is for converting pro football fans to college football fans in a pro football town. We could be about to find out. It’s wishful, in this economy, to think there are enough of both here to fill up two stadiums every fall weekend.
For now, here’s what Kelly has to deal with: a local affection for the Bengals that borders on delusional; a UC football history featuring middling results at best, in leagues nobody cared about; a two-year run on major success that still needs padding.
If you want a sold-out stadium, don’t win one Big East title. Win two in a row, three of five. Don’t just schedule Oklahoma, beat Oklahoma.
Change can occur here. Usually in geologic time. Certainly not in two years.
Admittedly the Cinci students and alum have a lot of blame. It just isn’t in their nature to care about the football team. The irrelevance of the team has been ingrained in them. Anecdotal evidence time. My wife — Cinci alum — actually knows football and basketball. She could care less about Cinci football, though, but still loves her Bearcat basketball team. It isn’t changing.
In some ways, I agree with the column, but he’s shorting the fact that Cinci has been at the very least competitive under Dantonio as well. He’s also placing too high a burden on what the Bearcats have to do. He’s saying the team has to win — and win big — for quite a spell and only then will fans show up. All but just saying that Cinci fans are nothing but frontrunners.
If that’s the case, then you have to wonder why the Cinci administration is even trying.
