2. Cotton Bowl – Cincinnati vs Alabama
Time and Channel: December 31st, 3:30 PM EST on ESPN
For BYU and fans of just about every team out there, this is the biggest bowl game of the year. College Football fans need to be cheering for Cincinnati. Cincinnati represents probably 80% of the teams in the nation. No, not just the G5’s, but also P5 teams like Kansas State, California, Wake Forest and Kentucky who just aren’t ever taken seriously because they aren’t in the top group of 15-20 teams who always find themselves in the preseason AP Top 25 and stay there unless they force themselves out.
If Cincinnati can keep the game close, or even win, it will open up playoff expansion discussion door wide open. Suddenly, any undefeated G5 team can point to Cincinnati as an example as to why they should be in the College Football Playoff, and they would have an argument. The naysayers wouldn’t be able to have a good argument to keep them out. In consequence, the P5 leagues would argue that they need expansion because now only three (or two) P5 conferences are getting into the Playoff.
On the flip side, if Cincinnati gets blown out, the committee will never again put a G5 school into the Playoff. The momentum for the expansion would slow down (although it will still be popular) and things would suddenly be headed in the wrong direction for the future playoff hopes of every team not named Alabama.