Bearcats

Nippert Stadium sits on the University of Cincinnati campus, and its 38,088 seats have held Bearcats football since long before conference realignment turned the sport upside down. The program itself goes back to 1885, one of the oldest in the country, though the nickname came later — coined in 1914 during a match against the Kentucky Wildcats, when a chant aimed at fullback Leonard "Teddy" Baehr stuck and never let go.

Cincinnati spent decades moving between conferences — independent status, Conference USA, the Big East, the American Athletic Conference — before joining the Big 12 in 2023. Luke Fickell coached that team, closing out a run in Cincinnati that began in 2017. Further back, Sid Gillman ran the program through the early 1950s, and the Bearcats' NFL pipeline has since sent out names like Travis Kelce and Sauce Gardner.

None of that came with much silverware attached — outright Big East titles in 2008 and 2009, an outright AAC title in 2021 — but the rivalries have outlasted the conference-hopping. Miami (OH) has been the standing fixture since 1888, the two sides playing for the Victory Bell. Louisville brings the Keg of Nails, and Pittsburgh the River City Rivalry Trophy — all three predating the Big 12 move by decades, and none of them dependent on what league Cincinnati happens to be playing in that season.