Cincinnati has been a fixture in the AP top-10 all season, but its legitimacy as a potential college Football Playoff team is at an all-time high after winning at Notre Dame on Saturday.

The Bearcats dominated the game, jumping out to a 17-0 lead and halftime and cruising from there to a 24-13 victory, which snapped a 26-game home winning streak for the Fighting Irish.

The big question now is whether Luke Fickell’s team is good enough to earn one of the 4 spots in the College Football Playoff.

Sunday morning on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” college football analyst and radio personality Paul Finebaum said he doesn’t see it happening.

“It think they’re good, but not great,” said Finebaum of Cincinnati. “Part of their problem is the SEC. I mean, right now, the SEC has 2 teams in the Playoff (Alabama and Georgia), and you cannot dispute that. They’re the 2 best teams in the country.

“And then, you don’t know what’s going on in the Big Ten. You have Penn State. Hey, Michigan is still out there with some big games ahead. Ohio State is not done. And Oklahoma — we’ve beaten them up badly. They’re still alive. They have Texas this week.”

Finebaum also added that with Oregon losing Saturday at Stanford, that the Pac-12’s hopes of having a Playoff representative are done, but that the Pac-12’s demise still isn’t enough for the Bearcats to feel great about their position

“The Pac-12 — we can move them out into the Pacific Ocean,” Finebaum said. “They’re yesterday’s trash. But there are just too many teams around for Cincinnati to breathe easily. They are not done, but they don’t have much on their schedule. Games against Tulane and Tulsa are not going to help them. They have SMU later in the year. But right now, I’m concerned about Cincinnati’s schedule. That will be their undoing.”