From the Cincinnati Post:

<a href='http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050624/SPT0201/506240325/1035/SPT' target='_blank'>Bearcat football adds top opponents </a>

By C. Trent Rosecrans
Post staff reporter

To University of Cincinnati football coach Mark Dantonio, if you're going to be in a Bowl Championship Series conference, you might as well take advantage of it.

As the Bearcats prepare to officially join the Big East on July 1, the UC football program is making strides to live up to its BCS billing, announcing Thursday that it had completed contracts to play Atlantic Coast Conference teams Virginia Tech and North Carolina State in the future.

"It'll be a challenging schedule, but we strive to have that type of football team," Dantonio said. "We strive to be a true BCS player. And if you're going to strive to do that, you've got to take risks and play outside the conference and play some teams."

Dantonio said there are negotiations to add more big-name programs to their future schedules.

"There are other teams to fill the schedule that are of the same type level," he said.

In addition to the games against the Hokies and Wolfpack, UC announced two more future dates against Ohio State and a pair of games against Eastern Kentucky.

UC will travel to Blacksburg, Va., on Sept. 23, 2006, while the Hokies will open the 2009 season at UC's Nippert Stadium. UC will play at N.C. State in 2010, with the Wolfpack returning the game in 2011.

UC also announced two more dates against Ohio State. Already slated to play in Columbus in 2006, the Buckeyes will return to Cincinnati in 2012, with UC going back to Columbus in 2014.

The Bearcats will open the 2006 season at Nippert Stadium against Div. I-AA Eastern Kentucky, and then welcome the Colonels back to Cincinnati in 2008.

Dantonio said he took a similar approach to scheduling that the staff at Ohio State did when he was a coordinator. Under Jim Tressel, Dantonio said the Buckeyes have tried to play at least one BCS team, a Mid-American Conference team and a lower-level team.

With the 12-game schedule approved by the NCAA in April, Div. I teams may count one game against Div. I-AA opponents every season. Schools may start scheduling 12 regular-season games starting in 2006.

In addition to the new foes, UC will continue its out-of-conference rivalry against Miami University.

"The MAC is a great conference as a whole and we have a lot of respect for Miami," Dantonio said. "It's a great program and it's a great rivalry. It's good for college football when you play those rivalries. (The Miami game) will always be a critical game for us."

UC has played Virginia Tech seven times and leads the series 4-3. The first meeting between the teams was 1946 and the last was a 16-0 Bearcat victory at Virginia Tech in 1995.

UC has never played N.C. State.

"I think what we've done is with the Big East conference, we can step in as a BCS team and play more home-and-home," Dantonio said. "It's always good to have quality, big-time opponents. It's also a message to the people we recruit, you want to strive to be the best, you need to look upward and play some of these teams."