Breaking Down the 2016 Cincinnati Bearcats Football Schedule

Christmas in February has come with the AAC’s announcement of the conference schedule. That puts the finishing touches on the 2016 Bearcats football schedule. Let’s not delay, here’s the schedule in all it’s glory.

// 2016 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

The season is headlined by the Thursday night ESPN game against the reigning AAC champion Houston Cougars. The Bearcats and Cougs have hooked up for three very entertaining games and this one should fit that mold. The Memphis game takes place during the huge AAC crescendo for the season, which also sees Houston host Louisville. That’s not a conference game, but Cincinnati-Memphis and Houston-Louisville should point a lot of eyes at the AAC that weekend.

This also highlights a huge flaw in the American, the lack of rivalries. There is only one kind of rivalry with Houston and Memphis, since they are current powerhouses in the west division. The Bearcats end their season playing Tulsa. No offense to Tulsa, but that’s not a game that is going to get anyone really interested the day after Thanksgiving. There could be very important stakes, yes, but that game won’t be circled on many calendars.

After 4 of the first 5 games at home, the Bearcats alternate road and home games. The last 5 games look particularly tough, with the trip to Temple, huge game against BYU, going to Central Florida and hosting Memphis. With the way the Bearcats handled the league games last season, one could argue the trip to UConn could be tough. Hosting USF could be a challenge if the Bulls keep improving.

We don’t know TV for many of the games, as you can see. I’m guessing we’ll see a lot of CBS Sports and ESPNews. The Purdue game will probably be on the Big Ten Network.

My early guess is 8-4.