I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! I'm a student at NKU (right across the river) and I wanted to learn more about Cincinnati's Rivals and I thought no better way than jumping into this message board. With the help of message board members beginning in 2014, we—the students and professors of the Know Rivalry Project—began answering this question and others related to rivalry in the NCAA FBS. No one knows the rivalries of the Bearcats better than this message board community. Please help us update and expand our results to ensure that the Cincinnati Bearcats are included by taking 9 minutes to complete our newest survey:

https://umassamherst.co1.qualtrics.com/j...1&mbsrc=mb

Our previous results have been featured in numerous sports media outlets, as well as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. You can view those results, links to media coverage, and learn more about us at our KnowRivalry.com website BUT we'd prefer you didn't until you completed the survey via the link above... we don't want to influence your opinions provided in the survey.

We use the Qualtrics online survey software for data collection. This academic research has been approved by two US universities' Institutional Review Boards (IRB) and it poses no risks to respondents. You'll find more information on the disclosure agreement that is required to start the survey. There are plenty of other teams you can look into as well on the site if you had other favorite teams (Reds or Bengals). I'd love to know more in this thread about why certain teams are rivals. Thank you for helping us to include the Bearcats by participating and please share this with any other fans that may also help.

Zachary Beal, Northern Kentucky University
Dr. Joe Cobbs, Northern Kentucky University
Dr. David Tyler, University of Massachusetts—Amherst

Will definitely provide my inputs when I get a chance. Nice work! I will provide inputs to both Bearcats and Buckeyes (if they are an option).

Interesting project for all college football fans I was unaware about until now.

For basketball UC's rival is Xavier.
Traditionally Louisville is a football/basketball rival due to our long history playing them and close proximity, but those games haven't been played since 2013.
Miami is a series-- it was a rivalry at one time but due to inequities in fan interest, vision of both programs it is a game that is on the schedule.
OSU/UK aren't teams we play on a regular basis, so we are hard pressed to call them rivals. However, due to the fact there are so many of their fans in our metro area their specter always lingers.

(12-29-2020 05:08 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  For basketball UC's rival is Xavier.
Traditionally Louisville is a football/basketball rival due to our long history playing them and close proximity, but those games haven't been played since 2013.
Miami is a series-- it was a rivalry at one time but due to inequities in fan interest, vision of both programs it is a game that is on the schedule.
OSU/UK aren't teams we play on a regular basis, so we are hard pressed to call them rivals. However, due to the fact there are so many of their fans in our metro area their specter always lingers.

UCF then Memphis then Temple then Miami (1 point).

Louisville.
The Keg'O'Nails.

Miami of Ohio... The Victory Bell... In a distant second place.

In the Conference??? Memphis...maybe. That's it, really.

(12-29-2020 07:46 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Louisville.
The Keg'O'Nails.

Miami of Ohio... The Victory Bell... In a distant second place.

In the Conference??? Memphis...maybe. That's it, really.

Is a team a rival if they have not won in 15 years?

Is a team a rival if you no longer play and have no games scheduled?

Really we no longer have a true rival.

(12-29-2020 08:35 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 07:46 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Louisville.
The Keg'O'Nails.

Miami of Ohio... The Victory Bell... In a distant second place.

In the Conference??? Memphis...maybe. That's it, really.

Is a team a rival if they have not won in 15 years?

Is a team a rival if you no longer play and have no games scheduled?

Really we no longer have a true rival.

Yup this is sad and unfortunate.. louisville/pitt/wv don't even think about us anymore since they've all moved on to better conferences. It would be awesome to get 2 of those every year in the non con

That was kind of fun. I laughed as I got to express my thoughts about Memphis fans...

Kind of interesting what now passes for academic rigor. I love sports as much as anyone, but I thought college was more about study/inquiry/research into stuff that advances the human condition; say, for example, among other disciplines, the following: physics, engineering, mathematics, human behavior and development, management theory, astronomy, chemistry, geology, biology, etc.

OK, I'll play. Biggest rivals: Louisville, Ohio State, UK, Pitt, WVU, Miami, and to a lesser degree, Ohio U. and Indiana Univ. In athletics, only Memphis and UCF in our current conference seems to garner much passion. I know that we don't play a bunch of the regional schools anymore. But they are still our rivals, athletically and otherwise. We compete with many of them for recruits, students, corporate research donations and regional stature and influence.

Louisville would be if we played.

Traditionally Miamuh of Ahiya is, but they suck now.

We were getting going with WV, Pitt and Syracuse, then they left.

We have a hard time getting rivals.

Our traditional rival is Miami. The history of the Victory Bell series goes back to 1888. It’s become lopsided in recent years but there have still been good games. As recently as 4 years ago we needed an outright miracle to win but we pulled it off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_...ati–Miami)

(12-30-2020 10:10 AM)Dannyboy Wrote:  Our traditional rival is Miami. The history of the Victory Bell series goes back to 1888. It’s become lopsided in recent years but there have still been good games. As recently as 4 years ago we needed an outright miracle to win but we pulled it off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_...ati–Miami)

Traditionally, yes. It hasn’t been a rivalry for a while, despite how close the games were from 2013-2017. Frankly, even before we took the series over in 2006 I remember getting up more for the Louisville games than MU. I am guessing it had to do with the two schools having similar profiles, close proximity, and being rivals in multiple sports for so many years.

Frankly, I don’t even think much about Miami at all— they don’t have a sizable fan base, they don’t get covered in the media (even local), we do not lose recruits to them... they are basically irrelevant.

At the moment, our only football rivals are the teams above us in the CFP rankings.

Miami is a long standing game but as a guy who attended both schools, I’ve just never really seen it as a rivalry game. Perhaps it used to be when the programs were on more of an equal footing in terms of mission statement and financing. Not the case anymore.

UL used to be our main rival but that is now sadly over due to conference realignment.

UCF and Memphis are the closest things to rivalries that I see in this far flung conference. We just don’t have any programs nearby enough geographically that are in the same weight class.

(12-30-2020 10:41 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Miami is a long standing game but as a guy who attended both schools, I’ve just never really seen it as a rivalry game. Perhaps it used to be when the programs were on more of an equal footing in terms of mission statement and financing. Not the case anymore.

UL used to be our main rival but that is now sadly over due to conference realignment.

UCF and Memphis are the closest things to rivalries that I see in this far flung conference. We just don’t have any programs nearby enough geographically that are in the same weight class.

Obviously the worst part about the Big East getting picked apart is UC missing out on huge amounts of money and being at the big boy table, BUT the other sad part is the conference was really great for fun geographic games that could create interesting rivalries. We had our longtime rival Louisville, but WVU and Pitt were also in reasonable driving distance and those games really had a great atmosphere to them.

Yep. Was nice being able to head out the night before or get up early on game day to attend games at UL, Pitt, and WVU. I did Rutgers as well but 9 hours or so is more of a commitment.

Rivalries are tough to establish organically when other than a small handful, your own fans and students can’t make the trip.

(12-30-2020 11:00 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(12-30-2020 10:41 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Miami is a long standing game but as a guy who attended both schools, I’ve just never really seen it as a rivalry game. Perhaps it used to be when the programs were on more of an equal footing in terms of mission statement and financing. Not the case anymore.

UL used to be our main rival but that is now sadly over due to conference realignment.

UCF and Memphis are the closest things to rivalries that I see in this far flung conference. We just don’t have any programs nearby enough geographically that are in the same weight class.

Obviously the worst part about the Big East getting picked apart is UC missing out on huge amounts of money and being at the big boy table, BUT the other sad part is the conference was really great for fun geographic games that could create interesting rivalries. We had our longtime rival Louisville, but WVU and Pitt were also in reasonable driving distance and those games really had a great atmosphere to them.

Pitt had the most potential to be a great long-term natural rival. The two cities have competing interest in the NFL and MLB and in general the two cities do not like on another (although there are many similarities between the two).

WV as well are mostly Steeler and Pirates fans. Was sitting near a wVU that was wearing a Steelers jersey back in 2011 (Steelers in town that Sunday).

Thank you to everyone that replied and helped out