The final Victory Bell game for the foreseeable future has an unexpected home. Charlie Clifford of WLWT 5 NBC reported Sunday night that Cincinnati and Miami’s long-standing rivalry game would move from Paycor Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals, to FC Cincinnati’s home stadium, TQL Stadium, for what will be the final scheduled game in the rivalry.
The game is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19th, 2026.
It may be a tough pill to swallow, but the last decade of Victory Bell games at Paul Brown/Paycor
Stadium shows this may be the right move.
The 2014 Victory Bell game was the first played at the Cincinnati Bengals’ home stadium since 1990. The thrill of the first neutral site Victory Bell game in 24 years and Miami’s second game at Paul Brown Stadium ever led to an impressive crowd of 41,926 (65 percent of the venue’s 65,000+ seat capacity). The next two games at Paul Brown/Paycor Stadium never reached these heights.
A torrential downpour scared fans away from Miami and Cincinnati’s return to Paul Brown Stadium in 2018. Only 16,062 fans— less than a quarter of the stadium’s capacity— saw a forgettable 21-0 Cincinnati win. The two schools tried again four years late in 2022. While attendance naturally improved with better weather, Paycor Stadium was less than half full. 30,109 fans saw Cincinnati beat Miami 38-17.
TQL Stadium at max capacity seats 2,000 less fans than Miami’s Yager Stadium, and is eclipsed by Nippert Stadium’s 38,000+ seats, but this could ultimately be the wisest decision given the past turnouts and politics at play. There seems to be an underlying reluctance from Cincinnati to play Miami at Yager Stadium. The Bearcats have made the trip just once since 2016.
Perhaps, this led to Miami preemptively canceling their 2025 and 2027 visits to Nippert Stadium. It seems the game had to be played at a neutral site in Cincinnati or not at all. The RedHawk athletic department probably looked at the past attendance and came to this decision.
It is not a stretch to say this could be the end of college football at Paul Brown Stadium for the foreseeable future.
Miami does not have any future Power Four home games scheduled, and the optics of Cincinnati moving a Big 12 game from Nippert Stadium to Paycor are poor. The venue was never much of a college football venue anyways. With the exception of Cincinnati playing its six-game home slate at Paycor Stadium in 2014, the venue has hosted seven college games in its 26-year history.
