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The non conference schedule is good. it is decidedly not great. The Bearcats will host N.C. State, as discussed previously. There is the neutral site game with Pitt at MSG as part of the Jimmy V Classic. The Crosstown Classic at the Bearcats future new home (hopefully). New Mexico will probably be a top 25 team all year, and the Pit is no joke. On the other side of the spectrum there are some real dogs there. Appalachian State, Campbell, North Carolina Central, Kennesaw State, Chicago State, etc. There is nothing good about those games, nothing.
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It is really nice to see Memphis back on the schedule. That warm little feeling of nostalgia and Fred Smith's money are the only two things nice about having Memphis in the conference, and the nostalgia ranks a distant second if I am being honest.
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The Bearcats most important stretch comes at the very end of the season. From February 6th on, the schedule is home against UConn, at SMU, home to Houston, at UCF, home to Louisville, at UConn, home to Memphis, at Rutgers. The first half of the conference slate is rather dreary, the big games being at Louisville and at Memphis.
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Lots and lots of these games will be on CBS Sports Network, which almost no one in Ohio gets at all. So that’s splendid.
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The Bearcats home match up with Louisville, the last for a while presumably, will be on CBS and be carried nation wide. The American won't have many dates set with network TV, so this is probably something that will have to be treasured going forward. I have no idea how often that will happen.