In July, it appeared the football series between the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and Miami University RedHawks was coming to a halt. Miami administrators had backed out of a return game at Nippert Stadium in 2025, leaving Saturday’s game at Yager Stadium in Oxford as the final scheduled meeting on either campus.
That left the 2026 scheduled game at Paycor Stadium as the possible swan song for the “Battle for the Victory Bell”.
Now, The Enquirer has learned through UC sources the series could continue every few years. The plan would be a neutral site meeting. Recent such games were played at the Cincinnati Bengals stadium. Before Miami broke UC’s 16-game streak in the series in overtime at Nippert last year, the teams had played in downtown Cincinnati in 2022 and 2018. Their last episode at Yager Stadium came in 2017 when Luke Fickell’s Bearcats came from being down 17-6 with less than three minutes to go to prevail 21-17 thanks to a pick-six by Malik Clements.
Even this summer, both athletic directors appeared to leave a window open for future dates.
Cincinnati Bearcats AD John Cunningham
“We understand the importance of this historic rivalry to our fans and college football, and we are disappointed Miami University will not be coming to Nippert Stadium next season. However, we look forward to facing the RedHawks at Yager Stadium in the Battle for the Victory Bell this fall and at Paycor Stadium in 2026. We will continue to explore opportunities to play Miami in the future. We thank Miami for the many memorable moments over the years.”
Miami RedHawks AD David Sayler
“Fans will undoubtedly notice no game with Cincinnati on the 2025 schedule, however, we look forward to squaring off against them in 2026 on a neutral field. I am optimistic, based on some preliminary conversations, that we will continue to play into the future and look forward to working with the UC Administration to make that happen.”
Cincinnati Bearcats, Miami RedHawks even for now
The game was first played Dec. 8, 1888 and nobody scored. Since then they’ve met 127 times with Miami evening the score last year at 60-60-7. Betting odds this week have had the Bearcats favored by anywhere from 2.5 to four points.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bearcats football series with Miami University may extend
