As Luke Fickell and members of the University of Cincinnati football team sat down for their portion of Thursday's virtual American Athletic Conference Media Day, the Bearcats exuded the same confidence that propelled them to winning the conference's last two championships.
But the conference's media members weren't buying it.
Though Cincinnati received the most first-place votes (10) of the 11 AAC programs, the Bearcats were picked to finish second behind their fellow soon-to-be Big 12 Conference member Houston in the preseason AAC media poll released Thursday morning.
Houston is projected to be the 2022 AAC champion even though the Bearcats defeated the Cougars in last season's conference title game en route to earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.