The history of Cincinnati on College GameDay

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It took until Week 10, but the Big 12 is finally featured on College GameDay — which remains a significant cultural event in the college football world. The Saturday morning program is livelier than ever, on pace to produce its greatest viewership of all-time with an average audience of 2.8 million viewers.

This week, that crowd will turn its attention to Salt Lake City for a marquee matchup of Big 12 contenders Utah and Cincinnati. Both red and black programs are fairly new to the Big 12 with the Bearcats joining in 2023 and the Utes joining in 2024. Prior to Big 12 admission, Cincinnati and Utah were the class of their respective conferences, with the Bearcats claiming back-to-back American Conference titles in 2020 and 2021, while the Utes earned consecutive Pac-12 championships in 2021 and 2022.

They racked up the New Year’s Six bowl appearances, but that early 2020s success didn’t immediately translate to the Big 12… until now. Heading into this College GameDay spectacle, Utah (6-2, 3-2 Big 12) is ranked No. 24 and Cincinnati (7-1, 5-0 Big 12) is No. 17, both claiming early bowl eligibility for the first time in their new conferences.

This marks College GameDay’s sixth visit to Salt Lake City, also setting up shop in Utah’s state capital in 2004, 2010, 2015, 2016, and 2023. This also isn’t Cincinnati’s first experience with College GameDay. This will be the Bearcats’ third time featured in the GameDay matchup. Here is the history:

Nov. 17, 2018: Cincinnati at UCF

UCF 38, Cincinnati 13

This was a notable episode in the history of College GameDay, as UCF was one of the main characters of the college football world at the time. The Knights recently completed the first truly perfect season of the College Football Playoff era, producing a 13-0 record capped with a 34-27 Peach Bowl win over Auburn — which defeated both participants in the College Football Playoff Final. Despite not receiving a playoff bid, UCF claimed an NCAA-recognized national championship, simultaneously becoming a symbol for equity in the sport for supporters and a lightning rod for detractors.

UCF rode an FBS-best 23-game win streak entering this primetime ABC matchup against Cincinnati. The GameDay crew paid a visit to Orlando for a ranked matchup between No. 11 UCF and a No. 24 Cincinnati team breaking out under second-year head coach Luke Fickell. Lee Corso selected the Knights wearing a full Knightro costume, and the Orlando native was proven right. Although Cincinnati started the primetime game off hot with a scoop-and-score touchdown in the end zone, UCF was unshakeable in the hostile Bounce House environment, rattling off 35 unanswered points en route to a 38-13 victory.

Nov. 6, 2021: Tulsa at Cincinnati

Cincinnati 28, Tulsa 20

Three years later, Cincinnati found itself in incredibly similar position to UCF as the face of the American Conference. The Bearcats produced 11 wins in 2018 and 2019 under Luke Fickell but truly broke out in 2020 with a 9-0 start, before dropping the Peach Bowl to Georgia on a heartbreaking last-second field goal. However, Cincinnati recovered with an 8-0 start to the 2021 season, claiming 17-straight regular season victories to warrant national respect. Most importantly, the Bearcats upended Notre Dame on the road which hadn’t lost another game all regular season, putting themselves in prime position for the first-ever American playoff bid.

Cincinnati was highly-regarded as No. 2 in the AP Poll at the time of the matchup, although the College Football Playoff committee applied an American Conference tax to place the Bearcats at No. 6. The College GameDay crew arrived to campus for the Nov. 6 matchup with Tulsa — not necessarily for the marquee nature of a 3:30 p.m. ET matchup on ESPN2 — but to showcase Cincinnati’s recent dominance and tell the story of a historic CFP contender. The Bearcats stormed to a 14-0 lead, let Tulsa back in the contest before halftime, and then created a 28-12 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. Down 28-20, the Golden Hurricane received several shots at the tie in the late fourth quarter, turning it over on downs from the Cincinnati 6-yard line and fumbling on 4th and goal from the 1 with 36 seconds remaining. The Bearcats survived an important test in the national spotlight and remained unblemished through the conference championship game — becoming the first-ever American team to qualify for the CFP.

Nov. 1, 2025: Cincinnati at Utah

Now Cincinnati is back in the spotlight, riding a 7-game win streak with five Big 12 victories under its belt. Saturday night in Salt Lake City will be the most challenging test of the year for Scott Satterfield and the Bearcats, which hope to spoil a road College GameDay atmosphere for the first time, in what will be the program’s first-ever meeting with Utah.

The Cincinnati vs. Utah game kicks off from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City at 10:15 p.m. ET and is televised on ESPN. It will be a long day for those in the city, with College GameDay hitting the airwaves at 9 a.m. ET — over 13 hours prior to the anticipated Big 12 showdown.

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