Football for Cincinnati fans made a rare intrusion on January, which turned out not to be such a glorious moment. But well take it and hope for more next year, understanding that the interim poses numerous challenging scenarios.  

At the end of a charmed season, University of Cincinnati football officials are in the game they expected, a Jan. 1 meeting in the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech, which automatically goes to Florida as the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion.  

Would a loser have awaken at 9 a.m. on a Saturday and started drinking Sparks energy beer, eating bagels and watching college football pregame shows? Would a loser have walked across the UC campus before noon drinking beer out of a to-go coffee cup? I think not.  

Nobody has ever accused the University of Cincinnati of overemphasizing football ... probably not even in 1885, when UC became the fifth American university to start a football team. For more than 120 years, locals wondered why the university should even bother with it. But in a flash of two years, UC's football reputation has changed. Today, with the Bengals at their worst, UC football is the star of the Cincinnati athletic scene. They're winners in a town starved for winners.  

Following the University of Cincinnati football team used to be one of life’s simple pleasures, a private and personal window on sports through which the wins and losses didn’t matter as much as the laughs, groans and occasional sense that these kids might be getting somewhere.  

Another wonder of college football announces itself in the middle of town as the lords of Nippert Stadium enter November playing for their highest stakes ever. A real conference championship race has arrived.