Hug Bearcats as best of BCS underdogs

There is a team that, given a chance, could wreak havoc with the big boys of college football and delightfully screw up the discombobulated antiquity of the BCS system. It's a team many of you know nothing about.

It'd be able to hang with Florida and its concussed quarterback, score on Alabama's vastly over-hyped defense and grind Boise State into dust.

And don't even put them in the same sentence with the TCU Horned Frauds.

They're not "BCS busters" because their conference is in the BCS, but they'd still implode the system from within like a virus that penetrated a cell membrane.

They're the Cincinnati Bearcats and they'd represent the disrespected little guy quite well. They'd do it better than Boise State, TCU or any other smaller program the snobby elites pat on the head and tell to go sit in the corner.

The Bearcats are the only smaller program that can hang with the elites because they have a quarterback, Tony Pike, who'll end up as a first-round draft pick in the NFL next year. Pike is probably the best pro-ready thrower in the country.

In many ways, he's more dangerous than Tim Tebow and he's as pure a passer as Sam Bradford.

If you were to theoretically pick a smaller program to play an Alabama or Texas in the national title game, the team to pick is Cincinnati.

My debate on this issue is with Tweedle-Boise and Tweedle-Noise-e. Dodd is on the usual Boise bandwagon. Sure, whatever Dodd. Of course, Doyel is the contrarian. Doyel stalks contrarianism like a predator drone.

My argument is not contrarianism, it's intellectual. It's about fairness and the American way of life. Eagles soar, our flag flutters in the breeze, the national anthem blasts aloud.

This column is about the underdog. We love underdogs in this country and Cincinnati is the under-doggiest of the under-pooches.

In the BCS underdog discussion, Cincinnati has the trump card: Heisman candidate Tony Pike. (Getty Images)

Please keep the mocking to a minimum. The Bearcats play in the stinky Big East and the team's level of competition isn't great, but use your imaginations for once, people, instead of the keyboard to pull up your favorite porn.

Pike is the key to this argument. Boise doesn't have anyone like him; in fact, few teams in the NCAA do. Possessing an accurate pro-style quarterback in college is like having an athletic 7-footer in middle school. It's an incredible advantage.

Pike is completing 67 percent of his passes and has a quarterback rating of 159.95. Sure, he's sometimes doing it against schools named Our Lady of the Canton Repository but, again, project.

Pike reminds me a great deal of Aaron Rodgers. That's one hell of a compliment. It's Pike who has people saying the Bearcats are the best team in Ohio ahead of Ohio State. The Bearcats are ranked No. 8 in the latest Associated Press poll, one spot ahead of the Buckeyes. It's the first time Cincinnati has been ranked ahead of OSU in almost 60 years.

Boise State gets respect for beating down Oklahoma a few years ago but now Boise is more gimmick than given. It's science fiction. It would take a more meat-and-potatoes approach for a smaller program to knock off Goliath.

The Bearcats are Boise 2.0. They're the new Boise, better and improved, with a real threat at quarterback.

Would Cincinnati get scored on by Florida? Sure. Yet Pike's quick delivery and accuracy would give the Gators or Texas fits, too.

Boise or TCU would get abused while Cincinnati would do some abusing.

I saw Pike play against Rutgers and sure, it was only Rutgers, but the Scarlet Knights are solid and have recently churned out some talented NFL players. Pike destroyed them for 362 yards and three touchdowns.

The Bearcats are dangerous, no matter which team they play, and they're certainly a better option than Boise State.

Cincinnati's new motto: We're the new Boise State.

And we're better.