The Cincinnati Bearcats start the 2025-26 college football season on August 28th at 9:00 p.m. as the Bearcats travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers, where they open as 6.5-point underdogs.
The season opener at a neutral site counts as a home game for Cincinnati, even though it's only a 3-hour drive from Nebraska's campus. The game was originally supposed to be held at Lucas Oil Stadium, a lot closer to Cincinnati. The game couldn't be switched to a Nebraska home game due to Schedules already being completed for both teams.
Nebraska opens as a 6.5-point favorite, likely due to the environment at Arrowhead Stadium being close to a home game for the Cornhuskers. The last time the Cincinnati Bearcats opened as week one underdogs was when they played Arkansas in week one in 2022. The Bearcats were 6.5-point underdogs and lost 31-24, failing to cover by half a point. The Bearcats have performed well in past week one games, and with being a neutral site game, it's hard not to have confidence and say the Bearcats will cover.
The over/under line is set at 50.5, a modest line with both offenses and defenses being revamped and untested, not sure how both teams will perform. This is the lowest week one over/under line for the Bearcats since 2019, when they played UCLA in Pasadena with an o/u of 49.5. The game ended with the Bearcats winning 26-17, the under hitting.