It's still early in the season, but the Cincinnati Bearcats already have matched the win total of their 2016 and 2017 teams, both of which finished 4-8. And one college football expert likes UC's chances to take part in the upcoming bowl season.

Stadium's Brett McMurphy projects a Bearcats-North Carolina State showdown in the Military Bowl on Dec. 31 at noon.

Presented by Northrop Grumman, the 11th Military Bowl will feature a matchup between an Atlantic Coast Conference team and an American Athletic Conference team at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium - located off the campus of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Navy cruised past Virginia, 49-7, in last year's Military Bowl.

UC's last bowl game was the Hawaii Bowl under head coach Tommy Tuberville in December of 2015 - a 42-7 loss to San Diego State.

The Bearcats lost 33-17 to Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl in 2014 - the second of three consecutive losses in bowl games under Tuberville. Their last win in a bowl game was against Duke (48-34) in the Belk Bowl in 2012.

Takeaways from UC's comeback win over Ohio U.

UC looks to improve to 5-0 when it starts the AAC portion of its schedule on Saturday at UConn (1-3, 0-1 AAC East) at 3:30 p.m.

Get the latest UC sports news. Download the Bearcats app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.