Pitt has opened as a touchdown favorite over Cincinnati in the revival of the River City Rivalry.
Both Pitt (45-7 over Wofford) and Cincinnati (66-13 over Eastern Kentucky) are coming off FCS stompings to open the 2023 season, but as the oddsmakers see it, Pitt is set to keep rolling.
Pitt is a 7-point home favorite, with a 46.5-point over/under set, at Acrisure Stadium Saturday night. It will be the first Pitt-Cincinnati matchup in 11 years — and the first ACC game ever broadcast on The CW Network.
DraftKings is even higher on Pitt, setting the Panthers an 8-point favorite — with betting odds set at -110.
FanDuel sets Pitt as a 7-point favorite, with the same -110 odds, but it does offer over/under and moneyline bets. The Panthers hold -280 odds to win outright, as opposed to Cincinnati at +225, and the over/under has been set at 48.5 points.
Cincinnati, in the first season of new head coach Scott Satterfield’s tenure, is coming off a season-opening throttle of Eastern Kentucky. New quarterback Emory Jones, who has spent time at Florida and Arizona State, threw for 345 yards and five touchdowns, ran for two more scores and the Bearcats held EKU to just over 300 yards of total offense.
But Cincinnati, in its first season of Power Five football, was still projected to finish 13th in the Big 12. Ahead of only West Virginia.
Pitt and Cincinnati have played 12 times over the last 101 years, but the series has laid dormant since a 34-10 Bearcats win in 2012.
Pitt won the first seven meetings, including a debut 21-14 win in Pittsburgh in 1921, from 1921 until 2007. But Cincinnati took four of the next five from 2008-12.
The final 2012 matchup came in Pitt’s final Big East season, a season in which Tino Sunseri started at quarterback.
Kickoff Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m., with The CW carrying the local broadcast on 22 The Point, and it will serve as Pitt’s first true test of the season.
Two mature line-ups per OurLads.com depth chart. Phil Jurkovec could be in Year 3 as Panther and Year 2 as Starter if you look back at Jerry DiPaolo Trib article when he first hit TP in 2020/2021 out of NDame to BC. Pitt picked up highly regarded HS ASU guy Joey Yellen a few days earlier.
Transfer Portal and NIL have made NCAA D1 P5 pretty exciting. Our offense has benefited heavily from TP.
Hopefully the pendulum post Covid #s swings back toward HS recruiting and player development.