Louisville Cardinals to the pros: Another milestone set by UofL athletics

The Louisville Cardinals continue impressive feats.

The haters love to have a go at the Louisville Cardinals any opportunity they get. Since former Athletic Director Tom Jurich took over on Floyd Street in the ’90s, Louisville sports have been on a steady incline across the board.

What was once just a basketball school that consisted of mostly in-state commuters has blossomed into a true university, a valued academic institution, and a desirable landing spot for students and coaches alike.

Louisville made the move to a power five conference in 2014, signifying the final transformation from a one-sport school with minimal success otherwise, to a national powerhouse in just two decades time.

It was the vision of men like Jurich and former football coach Howard Schnellenberger, who saw the potential for the Cardinals and made a vision a reality.

The bar just got higher for the Louisville Cardinals & other elite programs

Now, Louisville athletics are accomplishing feats that no other school in the country can touch year in and year out.

Not only do the Cardinals football and basketball teams maintain a high standard of excellence, but non-revenue sports are special in Louisville.

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That translates to success after Louisville as well, which is evidenced by the sheer number of players that the Cardinals have had drafted into major professional sports leagues just this season.

Credit to Louisville statistician extraordinaire, Kelly Dickey, for digging this up first.

Louisville is the only program to have a player taken in the first round of every major draft. Just think about how tough it is to maintain that level of recruiting and development across all sports. Yet, it’s the type of talent level that UofL programs field year in and year out.

The Cardinals could continue this trend into the fall when All-American forward Jordan Nwora is projected to be drafted in the late first round of the 2020 NBA draft.

Naysayers will write this off as not being a big deal because of the lack of interest in non-revenue college sports nationwide. However, Louisville athletics has proven that when you invest in the “smaller” sports teams, it pays off in multiple ways.

Louisville athletics has become well-rounded, and as a result, has generated a ton of attention to the university as a whole. When you bring top-notch student-athletes to your school, regardless of sport, it promotes a culture of success overall.

Each year, there are around 750 student-athletes, which account for around 5 percent of the total undergraduate population. That’s nothing to scoff at because if even just 5 percent of your student body is actively engaged in the learning process. it is driving excellence across campus.

Of course, being a great student-athlete doesn’t always translate to being a great student or a great person, but the majority of athletes are keeping up their end of the bargain. For the 2019-20 season, Louisville had 14 programs post a perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) score. That’s double that of Kentucky (7) and North Carolina (7), for the sake of comparison.

And though some of these non-revenue sports “technically” don’t generate revenue overall for the school, they stimulate the economy in other ways and impact the overall culture of the city.

I’m sure downtown businesses don’t mind accommodating women’s basketball crowds that lead the nation in attendance. It certainly doesn’t hurt the school to pack Jim Patterson Stadium with standing room only crowds for dozens of games each year. It most definitely helped that Louisville City FC shared fields with the Louisville men’s soccer team and that Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium was able to accommodate more than 12,000 people on multiple occasions.

Those non-revenue sports were the whipped cream, cherries, and sprinkles on top of the Tom Jurich Sundae that ultimately saw Louisville athletics admitted into the ACC.

Yes, Louisville basketball is one of the top three programs historically in the conference, and the football team draws a national audience and travels well to bowl games- Those were the major draws for the conference.

However, when you compare Louisville to a Cincinnati, a Central Florida, Memphis, West Virginia, Syracuse, or any team that was vying for a final spot in the most recent conference realignment shuffle, the option becomes much clearer.

Hell, when you compare Louisville’s non-revenue sports to any school in the country, they are in the very upper echelon.

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When you credit those who built one of the most successful rises of an athletic department in the history of the NCAA, perhaps it starts with decades of success on the basketball court. It doesn’t hurt to have two BCS Bowl games under your belt and a ravenous television market to boot. But, as with any success story, it’s the attention to detail that separates Louisville from the pack.

The fact that Louisville soccer is one of the only teams in the country to have state of the art locker rooms, a professional regulation-size field, and real grass turf might be overlooked by some. But when Andrew Farrell and Cherif Dieye sign lucrative contracts in the MLS, the next generation of players is watching.

The fact that Louisville dumped $6 million into renovations to its Simpsonville golf course paves a way for national tournaments to be played at a university-owned facility and top recruits to seek out opportunities at Louisville for decades to come.

There is no detail too minor in Louisville, and said attention to the little things is what ultimately is perpetuating future success for the Cardinals.

Louisville is putting players in “the league” in every sport. It is choosing not to hang its hat on one or two items, but instead, climb to the top by committing to every student-athlete in every sport. That will continue to replicate itself as recruiting classes get stronger, facilities grow bigger, and fan support grows louder.

It all started with a vision, a giant patch of asphalt, and 22 soybean silos. The end result has been putting successful players in major professional sports leagues in every sport from the NFL to the PGA Tour.

That’s the power of a vision.