IRVING, Texas — As college football’s postseason evolved from disconnected bowls to the BCS to the current four-team playoff, it never truly embraced the underdog the way the NCAA Tournament does.

From Tulane to Utah, Boise State to TCU and then UCF, the upstarts occasionally got a chance to play a blue blood in a big bowl game, but they never entered the postseason with a legitimate opportunity to win a national championship.

College football finally has its first Cinderella team: Cincinnati has broken the glass ceiling.

The Bearcats will play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve after being selected to the College Football Playoff on Sunday.

Fourth-seeded Cincinnati is the first team to reach the CFP from a non-Power Five conference in the eight-year history of this postseason format.

The Bearcats (13-0) won the American Athletic Conference and head into the postseason as the only unbeaten team in the country.

“It’s an historic day. It really is. In the world of sports, this is history,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said.

“This is something probably many, many people never thought they would see.”

Previously, no team from a so-called Group of Five conference had ever even come close to making the playoff.