These are the things you remember when it's a rivalry game. It's a feeling a tiny part of me has missed because I think it's something that makes sports—especially at the collegiate level—feel special. It's a feeling I was reminded of Saturday night as the Bearcats lost in Orlando to the UCF Knights, 25-21.
We've been blessed to play plenty of important games in the nine years since that night, but if I'm being honest, not many have felt important in that way. Games against UCF have, though. That 2019 win didn't just feel special because it was a critical top-25 upset; it felt special because it was UCF. They'd kicked our teeth in at home in 2017 and got the best of us in their 2018 College GameDay showcase. They were the team to beat. When the Bearcats were in the AAC's driver's seat in 2020 and 2021, they had their way with literally every conference opponent they faced. Still, those wins over UCF were the ones fans stopped and savored: Tight ends Whyle and Taylor racking up yards in 2020 and running back Jerome Ford taking the lid off in 2021 with four first-half touchdowns.
Saturday's loss would've hurt, regardless of the opponent. After all, it snapped a winning streak against AAC teams that stretched back to 2019. But it wasn't any opponent. It was UCF. And so it hurt more.
Cincinnati has had uneasy relationships in recent years, sure. They've played Miami for the Victory Bell since 1888. But with the Cincinnati win streak running to 16 games, it's more a rivalry of traditional and geographic importance. The series with South Florida (the longest active streak the Bearcats have against any opponent) has provided a lot to both programs, but the two teams have rarely been good enough at the same time to foster much ill will. And, of course, the two won't play any longer starting next season.
But the Bearcats and Knights have played each other eight years in a row. Each team has won four games. Each team has, at one time, won three straight. Each team has lost once at home. Each team has a 19-game win streak against AAC opponents to their name, and perhaps most remarkably, each team spoiled the other's streak.
But to explain the bad blood using numbers or head-to-head comparisons would be to tell the story wrong. Take a look at Twitter on any given day, and you'll see the kind of petty bickering that only comes when fans care enough to argue about college football in May.
There haven't been a lot of grudge matches or circled dates on the calendar since those days of Pittsburgh and Louisville, but UCF has become one. And so Cincinnati will enter the Big 12 Conference with something it's searched for since the Big East: a rival.
