The Cincinnati–Memphis rivalry is a college

sports rivalry A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes, affecting participants, management, and supporters all to varying degrees. The intensity of the rivalry can range anywhere from a light hearted banter to serious violen ...

between the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

Bearcats and the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...

. The rivalry between these two schools dates to their first

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game in 1966, and has continued across all sports, with the men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

series gaining attention as well, having started in 1968. The schools have also shared conferences historically, with the rivalry stretching over the span of five conferences from the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

, to the

Metro Conference The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because its six charter members were all in urban metropolitan areas, though its later members did n ...

Great Midwest Conference The Great Midwest Conference was an NCAA Division I athletics conference that existed from 1991 to 1995. History It was formed in 1990 with six members: Cincinnati and Memphis State (now Memphis) from the Metro Conference, UAB from the Sun Belt ...

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

, and more recently in the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

History

Both universities share histories in their founding as small city universities into large universities with prominent Division 1 athletic programs. The schools would first face off as members of the

in the 1960s and then both schools would be founding members of the

, and

. The schools were reunited as conference rivals due to the 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment as members of the

. While the rivalry was represented annually in football, the true intensity of the rivalry was felt more deeply on the basketball court. Since the founding of the American, the schools have had many notable contests in various sports. Most recently, with the football teams facing off in the 2019 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, with Memphis claiming the victory.

Football

Notable games

Nov 24, 2001: Memphis was searching for their first winning season since 1994 and the story looked complete when the Tigers scored a touchdown with 2:16 left in the 4th quarter. However, Bearcats QB

Gino Guidugli Gino Guidugli (born March 13, 1983) is a former American football quarterback and current quarterbacks coach at the University of Notre Dame. He was signed by the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2005. He played college football at ...

led a 75 yard drive, including a 36–yard catch on 4th and 27, that would end with the Bearcats scoring a touchdown with 4 seconds left to win 36–34. September 24, 2015: In a primetime Thursday night match, Memphis QB

Paxton Lynch Paxton James Lynch (born February 12, 1994) is an American football quarterback for the Michigan Panthers of the United States Football League (USFL). He played college football at University of Memphis, and was drafted in the first round of th ...

and Cincinnati QB

Hayden Moore Hayden Moore (born July 5, 1995) is an American former professional Canadian football quarterback. He played college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats. He also played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 2019. ...

led a 99 point shootout. Moore, replacing the injured Gunner Kiel during the first quarter, would set a Cincinnati record throwing for 557 yards. Despite surrendering the most yards in Memphis football history, the Tigers would win the game 53–46. December 7, 2019: In what would be

Mike Norvell Michael Kelly Norvell (born October 11, 1981) is an American college football coach who is currently head coach at Florida State. Norvell was previously the head coach at Memphis. He has coached at Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Central A ...

's final game at Memphis, the No. 20 Bearcats and No. 17 Tigers clashed for the second consecutive week in the 2019 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game. Bearcats QB

Desmond Ridder Desmond Ridder (born August 31, 1999) is an American football quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Cincinnati, where he was twice-named AAC Offensive Player of the Year before be ...

returned from injury to start and the teams went blow for blow, with the game having 6 lead changes. However, the Tigers once again proved to be too much for the Bearcats and would win 29–24 to clinch an appearance in the

2019 Cotton Bowl Classic The 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic was a college football bowl game played on December 28, 2019, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. local CST) on ESPN. It was the 84th edition of the Cotton Bowl Classic, and was one of the 2019–20 ...

Game results

Rankings are from the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

(1936–present), CFP Poll (2014–present)

Wins by location

Men's Basketball

The teams have faced off 84 times in basketball series history, with Cincinnati leading the all-time series 47-36 (and one win vacated by Memphis) as of the 2021-22 season. The teams have played six times in conference tournaments with Cincinnati leading 5–1. Memphis and Cincinnati have faced off once in the NCAA tournament, with Cincinnati leading 1–0.

Notable games

March 29, 1992: In a rare coincidence, the Tigers and Bearcats faced off for the fourth time during the 1991–92 season, this time in the NCAA Elite Eight.

Nick Van Exel Nickey Maxwell Van Exel (born November 27, 1971) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Van Exel played for six NBA teams from 1 ...

and Cincinnati defeated Great Midwest Player of the Year

Penny Hardaway Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway (born July 18, 1971) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team in the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Hardaway pla ...

in the two regular season matchups and in the tournament final hosted in Chicago. No. 12 Cincinnati would prove to be too much for the Tigers again in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

beating the Tigers 88–57 before falling to the

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

Fab Five in the Final Four. February 6, 1993: After four defeats in the prior season, Memphis and

were ready for blood when the Bearcats visited the

Memphis Pyramid The Memphis Pyramid, formerly known as the Great American Pyramid and the Pyramid Arena, is a building located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, United States, at the banks of the Mississippi River. Built in 1991 as a 20,142-seat arena, the facili ...

. The No. 4 Bearcats were defeated by the Tigers 68–66, recording Memphis their 1,000 program win and what would be Hardaway's only win as a player against Cincinnati. March 1, 1997: The No. 9 Bearcats were defeated in Memphis 75–63, in what became famously Memphis coach

Larry Finch Larry O. Finch (February 16, 1951 – April 2, 2011) was a player and coach for the University of Memphis men's basketball team. He is perhaps most famous for leading the Memphis Tigers to the NCAA men's basketball championship game in 1973 in a ...

's final game as he was forced to resign by

administrators. He would leave as Memphis's winningest coach of all time. Mar 3, 2002: Steve Logan and the No. 4 Bearcats came into their senior day game against the Tigers having won or shared each of

's six regular season titles, but the Tigers battled furiously to top Cincinnati. Cincinnati missed all 16 of their three-point attempts, with senior Logan having to take charge and tie the game with only 6.9 seconds left to send it to overtime. The Bearcats would prevail in the OT period 80–75. Mar 1, 2003: The Bearcats entered the game holding a six-game winning streak at the expense of the Tigers. Memphis dominated the second half and led by 23 points from Chris Massie, Memphis won, 67-48, handing Cincinnati its worst defeat in eight years of

play. Mar 6, 2004: No. 20 Memphis visited No. 13 Cincinnati having won 12 of their previous 13 games. In the regular season finale, Bearcat

Tony Bobbitt Tony Rachaun Bobbitt (born October 22, 1979) is a former American professional basketball player. Bobbitt played alongside National Basketball Association (NBA) player Vince Carter at Daytona Beach Mainland High School, where he graduated in 1999 ...

would sink a critical three-pointer to give UC the lead with 36 seconds remaining. Cincinnati would win 83-79. Mar 5, 2005: It what would be

Bob Huggins Robert Edward Huggins (born September 21, 1953) is an American college basketball coach. Nicknamed “Huggy Bear,” he is currently the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team. Huggins previously held the head coach ...

final game as against Memphis as Cincinnati's Head Coach, the No. 22 Bearcats won in a game with a bizarre ending. Mistakenly believing the Bearcats to have the lead, James White received the inbound and scored a lazy shot with only a few seconds remaining. That basket would prove to be the difference in beating

John Calipari John Vincent Calipari (born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach. Since 2009, he has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky men's team, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College C ...

's Tigers 62–60. January 4, 2014: In the first game of the two teams in the

, the Bearcats came storming into

FedExForum FedExForum is a multi-purpose arena located in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. It is the home of the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA and the NCAA Division I men's basketball program of the University of Memphis, both of whom previously played home ga ...

to take on the No. 18 Tigers. Cincinnati would topple Memphis 69–53. Both teams would advance to the

2014 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2014 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 18, 2014, and concluded with the ...

as the rivalry was rekindled in the new conference.

Game results

Rankings are from the

(1936–present) Source

Notes

^A 1987 Metro Conference men's basketball tournament
^B 1992 Great Midwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^C 1992 NCAA Elite Eight
^D 1993 Great Midwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^E 1994 Great Midwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^F 1995 Great Midwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^G

2018 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament The 2018 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament ended the 2017–18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season, 2017–18 season of the American Athletic Conference. It was held March 8–11, 2018, at the Amway Center ...

Wins by location

Wins by venue

Women's Basketball

First playing in the 1977–78 season, Memphis now leads the all-time series 36–24 as of the end of the 2020–21 season.

Baseball

The baseball teams have met a total of 137 times since 1962, with Memphis leading the series 67–50 as of the end of the 2021 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cincinnati-Memphis rivalry College basketball rivalries in the United States College football rivalries in the United States Cincinnati Bearcats basketball Cincinnati Bearcats football Memphis Tigers football