The 1983 Cincinnati Bearcats football team represented the University of Cincinnati during the 1983 NCAA Division I-AA football season. The Bearcats were led by first-year head coach Watson Brown. Due to an NCAA mandate that average attendance (home and away) exceed 20,000 fans, Cincinnati was to be relegated to NCAA Division I-AA. The program sued the NCAA, managing to limit the tenure of I-AA play to just the 1983 season, and played a schedule of mostly I-A opponents. They participated as independent and played their home games at Riverfront Stadium with on-campus Nippert Stadium being used as a supplement for the second of five straight seasons.