Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball 2026-27 Big 12 Opponents Revealed

The Bearcats' Big 12 conference basketball opponents are finalized for the 2026-27 season in Cincinnati. The conference announced the matchups on Thursday as summer workouts spark up for Jerrod Calhoun's first team in the Queen City.

Cincinnati has a ton of big-name opponents lined up in the non-conference front and will likely be in the top-30 most-difficult schedules again this season as a member of one of the toughest college basketball conferences in the nation.

They do get to face their top nemesis, Houston, at home in both matchups this season, while also facing Kansas in Fifth Third Arena and Dualing home/away matchups with Texas Tech and West Virginia.

Calhoun laid out his message for selling the program this offseason to The Field of 68's Rob Dauster.

"What we're really trying to sell is ourselves (the staff) right now, we won 101 games in four years, right?" Calhoun said in the interview. "I'd like to have more, but you know, there's a lot of losses in there too that sting. But that part of it, we can talk about 25 wins (per year) in four years, an elite offensive team over those years, we play a very upbeat new school system that players love to play in the best league in America.

"So, I'm not really concerned about our seven-year run of not playing in the NCAA Tournament, because I think the kids that we've been able to get on this year's roster understand what we're here to do. We're on a mission. We're not here to mess around. We're here to get back in the NCAA Tournament this year. And then you're off and running, but you know we're going to recruit at a high level. We're going to be able to attract some of the best talent in the country. I think we've already shown the ability to do that, so we're just getting started, and I've got a really, really good staff that's really connected, and we just got outwork people at the end of the day, there's no secret sauce to any of this, it's just hard work, and that's kind of who we've been."

Check out all of the conference matchups on the board below:

Our opponents are set for @Big12Conference play 😤 pic.twitter.com/svJQd5wdJR
— Cincinnati Men’s Hoops (@GoBearcatsMBB) June 11, 2026

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