Bearcats enjoy spoils of Big East

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The move to the Big East Conference has made scheduling football games against quality nonconference opponents easier for the University of Cincinnati, athletic director Bob Goin said Thursday.

With the added prestige that comes with playing as a member of a Bowl Championship Series conference, Goin said, the Bearcats no longer have to make lopsided concessions to get schools from other major conferences to play at UC.

"You don't have to call them and say, 'We'll come there 18 times and you don't have to come here ever,' " Goin said. "Those days are over."

UC announced Thursday it has entered into agreements to play Virginia Tech and North Carolina State, both members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, in two-game, home-and-away series.

"I think they're exciting for us," said UC coach Mark Dantonio. "When we get the opportunity to play that type of team, we want to take advantage of that. We're striving to become that caliber of football team."

UC also has agreed to a two-game deal with two-time Division I-AA champion Eastern Kentucky and announced dates for two additional games against Ohio State, although those games already had been agreed to.

The Bearcats already were scheduled to play at Ohio State Sept. 15, 2006. OSU will return to Cincinnati Sept. 8, 2012, to play at Paul Brown Stadium, and UC will play at Ohio State Sept. 6, 2014.

UC lost to Ohio State last year 27-6 in its season opener. In 2002, the Bearcats lost to Ohio State 23-19 before 66,319 fans at Paul Brown Stadium.

UC is 2-11 overall vs. Ohio State. The Bearcats' last win over the Buckeyes was in 1897.

"We look at that being on a regular basis every two to four years," Goin said of the series with Ohio State. "It's going to be a natural when we can go there and they can come here and play in front of 70,000 fans."

The Virginia Tech series begins Sept. 23, 2006, in Blacksburg, Va., and culminates with a game at Nippert Stadium Sept. 3 or Sept. 5, 2009.

The Bearcats, who have never played N.C. State in football, will play the Wolfpack in Raleigh Sept. 4, 2010, with N.C. State visiting Nippert Sept. 3 or Sept. 5, 2011.

"We're going to sprinkle some of those kinds of people in all the time, play home and away with some of those people as this program builds," Goin said. "That's the kind of football the University of Cincinnati needs to play and the kind of games UC fans will respond to."

UC will host Eastern Kentucky twice in the next three seasons, beginning with the 2006 season opener, which probably will be played on Thursday night, Aug. 31. EKU will play at UC again Sept. 4 or Sept. 6, 2008.

The Bearcats have a 4-3 record vs. Virginia Tech, their last win coming in 1995 when UC shut out the Hokies 16-0 at Virginia Tech.

The Hokies, who have achieved national prominence in recent years, left the Big East last year for the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were ACC champs last year, going 10-3 overall and finishing 10th in the Associated Press poll. They lost to Auburn 16-13 in the Sugar Bowl.

UC officials often have pointed to Virginia Tech as a program that has proven what an affiliation with a power conference can do for a program.

"It's a program that struggled early on in (coach) Frank Beamer's early years," Dantonio said. "Over a period of time, they got over the hump. I used to recruit that area when I was at Michigan State. Early on, the players weren't going to Virginia Tech. Now that has become one of the teams to beat (in recruiting)."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com