Cincinnati to close regular season at ECU
The Cincinnati Bearcats (11-0) already secured a spot against No. 24 Houston in the American Athletic Conference championship game. They would secure home-field advantage with a win Friday at East Carolina (7-4), which is currently riding a four-game win streak.
"We've said it all year, it's not the best team that wins the game, it's the team that plays the best," Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said. "As you go down the end of the season, the last 3 or 4 games of a season, you can tell a lot of different things about programs and teams. And I think that's the thing you look at with what they've done there. You see a team that has a lot of positive momentum."
Just this week, Cincinnati became the first Group of Five team to make the top four of the College Football Playoff rankings.
Committee chairman Gary Barta said the Bearcats were in the discussion to be considered in both the "clusters" of teams ranked in the top three and at five through seven.
Barta's remarks came after host Rece Davis asked whether the Bearcats were more comparable with the top three or the three teams behind UC.
Fickell also appeared on the show
and said the No. 4 ranking was well-deserved. But he is focused on the regularseason finale against the Pirates.
“They're a really good football team. They are really balanced in what they do, running and throwing," he said. "Defensively,
they've done a great job as well. That's what it takes. It's not like a one-sided team that's going to go out there and have 600 yards of offense, but they don't have the balance on the other side."