'A Long Year For The Bearcats, Fade Them' - CFB Experts Forecast Big Step Back For Cincinnati in 2026

The Cincinnati Bearcats football team is tied for the third-worst consensus betting odds to win the Big 12 this coming season (80-1). A number the Cover 3 podcast isn't going to be beating down the door to wager on.

The CBS Sports podcast hosted by Chip Patterson, Danny Kanell, Tom Fornelli and Bud Elliott saw them all take Cincinnati to not only struggle in the Big 12, but also finish under its 5.5-game betting win total.

Given Scott Satterfield's palatable buyout after this season ($5.53 million, offset by any other head coaching job salary he winds up getting next), a 5-7 season would be tough to ask fans to buy into for a fifth campaign.

"I am right there with you. It feels like Scott Satterfield is probably a dead man walking. When we were in Chicago, we were at the bar, Chip and I, and we met a guy who was a Cincinnati graduate," Kanell said on the show. "He was also a Notre Dame fan, right? He really liked Marcus Freeman, and I think it was before you got there. But he was like, 'What the bleep are we doing with Scott Satterfield?' I think this is a fan base kind of looking at this season, kind of checked out. I think the Brendan Sorsby stuff overshadowing probably hurt the plan a little bit for what they wanted to do. I'm going under. I think it could be a long year for the Bearcats; fade them."

Fornelli had a similar feeling as the other three, including a gambling joke at Sorsby's expense.

Cincinnati's 19th-most difficult schedule in the country by 2025 opponent win rate isn't helping their case either (49th-toughest schedule on ESPN's FPI).

"A lot of their coin flip games are on the road, which is not something you want as far as trying to get to bowl eligibility," Fornelli noted. "The road slate is just overall not easy. You get Texas Tech, like even if I'm down on Utah, getting Texas Tech, Utah, Houston, and BYU on your conference schedule, then throwing Kansas State on there as well is probably like the toughest you can ask for in this conference. So I think getting to a bowl game is going to be very difficult for this team to do. And if they do get there, kudos to them. I'm leaning under, and I think Brendan Sorsby would do the same."

It's could be a tough run for the Bearcats, especially if the injury bug regresses to the mean in a bad way. UC was very healthy in 2025 and needs that to continue this fall.

Check out their full thoughts below around the 47-minute mark:

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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