Alabama Rolls Past Cincinnati, 27-6, in College Football Playoff Semifinal

The Crimson Tide will face the winner of the other semifinal game, between Georgia and Michigan, on Jan. 10 for the national championship.

ARLINGTON, Texas — This was the moment the Cincinnati Bearcats had pined for all season. The roster is chock-full of local kids, overlooked by Ohio State in high school and largely underestimated now by the football elite, who put their place in the College Football Playoff down to a matter of necessity: The sport needed a fourth team in the field.

The Bearcats had dreamed so hard about a stage like this that some admitted their jaws might drop when they walked for the first time into Jerry World, as the cavernous Texas-size N.F.L. stadium here is colloquially known. As the team’s five buses pulled up, players held up their phones to the windows to record the moment.

If the Bearcats, determined and full of pluck, took memories away from their turn under the bright lights, they also got an up-close lesson that the rest of the college football has long ago learned — that Alabama remains the standard for the rest of the sport.