Report: Cincinnati Bearcats In Scheduling Talks With Louisville, Pitt, Kentucky

The Cincinnati Bearcats are in scheduling talks for a football series with the Louisville Cardinals, Pitt Panthers, and Kentucky Wildcats. This was yet another bomb the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Tom Groeschen dropped yesterday.

On the surface, all three potential opponents make sense from UC’s perspective. They each have a connection to the Bearcats’ football program in one way or another and would draw interest from casual fans, which is going to be a challenge for Cincinnati in the AAC. Additionally, Louisville and Pitt fans are familiar with Cincinnati from their days in the Big East. I have to think bringing the Bearcats into Papa Johns Stadium and Heinz Field would add a boost to attendance. Plus Cincinnati would be a strong team from a strength of schedule standpoint.

However I’m not sure it makes much sense for Kentucky.

Obviously this is an outsider’s perspective but the Wildcats’ risk of coming to Nippert Stadium outweighs the reward. UK plays in the gauntlet that is the SEC. While hopes are high in Big Blue Nation since the hire of Mark Stoops, it will take a major rebuild to get that program to the point where they’re winning at least 4 conference games per year, which hasn’t been the case since 2006. Currently the Wildcats need to boost their win total against their non-conference opponents as much as possible. Playing a consistently strong Cincinnati program would be a huge risk for Kentucky to add enough W’s to get to a bowl game.

So while the Bearcats hooking up with their once Big East foes Louisville and Pittsburgh, the Wildcats seem like a longshot. Although UC only yesterday inked a deal with the Indiana Hoosiers so I guess anything’s possible.