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Home games against traditional Conference USA leaders Louisville, East Carolina and Southern Miss highlight the 2003 University of Cincinnati football schedule.

"This is a good and competitive schedule," coach Rick Minter said. "It has a good balance of teams that will challenge us. The Conference USA schedule is a good one. We play some of the better teams at home, yet we have to play at TCU, a team that I believe will be one of the preseason favorites next year."

The season-opening meeting with East Carolina on Sept. 1 will kick off at noon and be televised on ESPN, bringing the game to a potential 90 million homes. Other ESPN games could be added when the final games of the league television schedule are determined.

Other notes:

• South Florida begins playing football in C-USA this fall, bringing the league's football members to 11. The Bearcats will play eight C-USA contests, facing every league team except Tulane and Houston.

• The Bearcats will play four teams that appeared in the postseason in 2002. The schedule includes road games at C-USA co-champion TCU (Liberty Bowl), Big East runner-up West Virginia (Continental Tire Bowl) and home games against Southern Miss (Houston Bowl) and Louisville (GMAC Bowl).

Tickets for 2003 home games are available by contacting the UC Athletic Ticket Office at (513) 556-CATS.

The Bearcats begin the 15-practice spring season April 2 and will play their annual Red vs. Black spring game April 26 at 2 p.m. in Nippert Stadium.

Schedule

Sept. 1, EAST CAROLINA (4-8), ESPN
Sept. 6, Open
Sept. 13, @ West Virginia (9-4)
Sept. 20, TEMPLE (4-8)
Sept. 27, @ Miami U. (7-5)
Oct. 4, SOUTHERN MISS (7-5)
Oct. 11, @ UAB (5-7)
Oct. 18, Open
Oct. 25, ARMY (1-11), Homecoming
Nov. 1, @ South Florida (9-2)
Nov. 8, RHODE ISLAND (3-9)
Nov. 15, @ TCU (10-2)
Nov. 22, @ Memphis (3-9)
Nov. 29, LOUISVILLE (7-6)

(Home games in caps, 2002 record in parentheses.)