A Friendly Reminder About UC’s Championship Culture

The Cincinnati Bengals, that other football team that just so happens to share the same city as our Bearcats, were eliminated from the NFL Playoffs by way of a 26-10 defeat at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts yesterday afternoon. For sixth time in the last decade, all of which under head coach Marvin Lewis, the Bengals didn’t advance past the first round, extending their playoff winless streak to 24 years.

It was also the fourth time under starting quarterback Andy Dalton that Cincinnati didn’t make any headway into the postseason. Of course, it’s tough to score more than 10 points when your leading receivers are running back Giovani Bernard and some guy named Ryan Hewitt but the fact remains, the Bengals are failing in the playoffs with Dalton at the helm. Whether that’s due in part because of him or factors out of his control is for the message boards to sort out. Still, he’s 0-4 in the postseason under a coach who’s 0-6.

It’s not good and I think this best summarizes the feeling of most Bengals fans, via local radio host Mo Egger.

Cincinnati Bearcats

The word that immediately came to mind when I read that was “apathy”. Bengals fans have developed a “welp, another year, another playoff loss” attitude. “Why get excited about the season when the year-end results are always the same?” Apathy is probably the worst thing that can possible happen to a fanbase, just ask any UC fan who suffered through the dark ages of football from the 80’s through mid-2000’s. Hearing incessant barking about how the Bearcats should fire Tommy Tuberville after losing a bowl game despite consecutive 9-4 seasons is annoying but quite honestly I’d take that over a fanbase that simply accepts less-than-greatness and moves on.

Now, I can see the seemingly apparent hypocrisy in a statement that supports one coach who’s 0-2 in postseason games while being down on another but that’s comparing apples to oranges. In the NFL, conference championship rings and Super Bowl trophies matter. Most people could give a damn about division title t-shirts. Did you know Houston won the AFC South and Washington the NFC East in 2012? Yea I had to look that up, too.

In college football, however, conference titles are far more important that bowl games, the National Championship obviously excluded. For years, decades even, bowls have been the icing on the cake for teams that simply didn’t post losing records. They’re more for the players, fans, and television networks more so than the trophies. The hardware is nice but ask any player if they cared more about the AAC title or the Military Bowl trophy and every one would say the former.

Just to hammer the point home, one-quarter of college football teams win a bowl game every year. The same ratio doesn’t exist in the NFL.

To get back on track, it’s incredible the kind of championship culture the Cincinnati Bearcats have developed that the other major teams in the city, the Bengals and Reds, haven’t. A decade in which UC won five conference championships in football and another in basketball, the Bengals and Reds haven’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs. The latter of which are undergoing a mini-rebuild heading into next season while the Bearcats are gearing up for another title on both the gridiron and hardwood.

It’s important to remember these things when walking around the office, classroom, or dorm today if you’re a UC fan. Your team just polished off it’s fifth conference championship in 10 years in football and are in a good position to win back-to-back titles in basketball. So puff out your chest a little bit. You have a lot to be proud of, Bearcats fans.