The talk will no doubt persist. Yes, Cincinnati is the first non-power five program to be selected for the College Football Playoff. But coach Luke Fickell wants everyone to know the Bearcats are far more than that stigma.

"We don't wanna think we're carrying some flag for the non-big schools," he said. "We just wanna be us."

Fickell was part of the Cotton Bowl Classic's selection teleconference Sunday afternoon. And ahead of Cincinnati's matchup Dec. 31 with Alabama, Fickell touched on the experience he and his team have of big-game situations.

The majority of the Bearcats' team this season was there last season, when they narrowly lost to Georgia in the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl. And Fickell himself has already prepared for Alabama, as a member of Ohio State's staff in 2014 before the Sugar Bowl, a semi-final game that season.

But this time, Fickell said looking back, he already sees one important aspect that carried Cincinnati to this point.

"We had to eliminate that unselfishness to be a team," he said. "If we couldn't do that, we were gonna struggle."

Check out the video above from the Cotton Bowl Classic teleconference, with Fickell and Alabama coach Nick Saban.