Before this wild and unconventional college football season kicked off, both the University of Cincinnati and University of Georgia football teams hoped to be among the select few scheduled to play on New Year's Day.
But the Peach Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was not what they had in mind, especially the Bulldogs.
The latest installment of the College Football Playoff kicks off Jan. 1, 2021, with the semifinal matchups between the top four teams in the playoff selection committee's final rankings.
Instead of having an opportunity to play for a national championship, No. 8 Cincinnati (9-0) and No. 9 Georgia (7-2) will have to settle for being the opening act.
"Make sure everybody understands, there is no disappointment over here," Bearcats coach Luke Fickell said Sunday night. "We are incredibly happy (and) excited to be where we are right now. To have a championship (American Athletic Conference), but now to have an incredible challenge with obviously the Georgia Bulldogs and Coach (Kirby) Smart."
Fickell and the Bearcats may not be disappointed but a large portion of their fan base is.
After wrapping up an undefeated regular season and winning the program's first outright conference championship since 2009, Cincinnati was ranked below a three-loss Florida (No. 7) team, a two-loss Oklahoma (No. 6) team and two other squads (No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 4 Notre Dame) that had one loss apiece and did not win their conference's championship.
The streak of having no non-Power Five teams in the College Football Playoff continues. Nonetheless, as the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion, Cincinnati earned a spot on the New Year's Day stage.
"It's easier from the outside looking in to say, well, they're going to be motivated because they're whatever that 'Group' or 'P' thing that you say that we don't talk about in our program and we don't say in our program," Fickell said. "I don't know anything about those letters or that language. Obviously, we know who Georgia is and we know what the SEC is all about. But in this 2020 year, everybody has sacrificed so much, and I mean that as players included, that anybody that's playing well at the end of the season has a motivation. ... Both programs have a lot to play for and I can see a motivation from both sides."
Georgia, which is a year removed from defeating Baylor in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, was No. 4 in the opening Associated Press Top 25 rankings prior to the start of the season.
The Bulldogs climbed as high as No. 3 before losing by 17 at then-No. 2 Alabama and then suffering a 16-point home loss to the Gators.
Despite being three seasons removed from nearly defeating his former boss Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide in the national championship game in the same stadium as this season's Peach Bowl, Smart said his team will be more than motivated to play against Fickell and Cincinnati, regardless of their Group of Five status.
"I'll be honest, when you're a competitor and you go out on the field, your intention is to win the game," he said. "That's not going to change between his guys and our guys. That's not the perspective. Every coach will try to build their angle to where it gives their guys an edge or a competitive advantage. Whether that's them being ranked ahead of us or us being ... I don't know. Group of Five, Power Five, all those languages, that's for you guys. My language is football, and they got a good football team."
Georgia's scheduled game Saturday against Vanderbilt was canceled due to the Commodores' squad size and position availability falling below roster minimum requirements, so Smart was able to watch as Cincinnati defeated Tulsa for the AAC crown. He said he was moved by Desmond Ridder's emotional postgame interview.
"When you see that, it gives you goosebumps because it matters so much to him and so much to his team," Smart said of the AAC Offensive Player of the Year and the conference title game's Most Outstanding Player. "To see that kind of raw emotion after a game like that, a championship game, it lets you know what he's built of and what he's made out of."
The following afternoon, Smart had to tell his players that they were going to have to face Ridder and the Bearcats, who are 31-5 since 2018. Georgia is 30-7 during that same span.
"I was just meeting and speaking to our team," Smart said. "Since 2018, their record is one of the top five in all of college football, and that immediately grabbed the attention of our players because we feel like we've had a good program over the last three or four years as well. The history of both programs speaks for itself. Both teams will be fired up to get an opportunity to play Jan. 1."