Cincinnati Bearcats Slated For Toughest Schedule in Big 12 This Fall Based on 2025 Results

The Bearcats are facing a brutal schedule gauntlet this coming football season. Reddit CFB broke down all of the 2026 schedules by 2025 opponent record, and Cincinnati's is the toughest in the Big 12 by a decent margin and the 28th most-difficult schedule in the country.

Now, past season results are a bit of a flawed way to view the upcoming season, especially with how much turnover there is in the transfer portal each year, but this is the best gauge to use at the moment, and things spell out plenty of hard tests for Cincinnati.

A Tough Slate

Cincinnati Bearcats stretch during University of Cincinnati Football practice at Higher Ground Convention Center in West Harrison Aug. 3, 2018. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The only truly easy game on the schedule is Western Carolina, while seven contests are deemed much tougher than the average opponent (Texas Tech, BYU, Houston, Arizona, Utah, Iowa State, Kansas State).

Head coach Scott Satterfield is well aware of how tough the run could be, especially with just one home game in November against Colorado (widely expected to be the worst team in the conference).

"If you love Bearcats football, you need to be in Nippert Stadium in the fall, especially the month of September, we're gonna be playing here, all four games will be in the city, so plan on being there," head coach Scott Satterfield said after the 2026 Spring Showcase. "It's gonna be a more exciting brand of football.

"I think, particularly defensively, get after the quarterback a lot more, an aggressive style of play. I feel like offensively, man, we're pleased where we are at. Offensively, we got a lot of weapons, a lot of new faces, but the offensive line is really coming on strong, which helps make the quarterback room play at a high level. So yeah, come out and see us and support your team. We got a tough schedule, and we need all the help we can get, for sure."

The rough schedule likely plays a factor in Cincinnati's low Big 12 Title odds. Cincinnati holds consensus 65-1 odds to win the conference in Year 4 of this Satterfield era, the fourth-worst odds among all 16 teams.

Check out the full look at all 138 FBS teams below:

With the 2026 FBS schedules finalized, here’s a graph of all 138 FBS teams ranked by average strength of schedule (based on 2025 opponent ranks). pic.twitter.com/5v3S6gTlak
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) April 30, 2026

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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