Louisville football: SEC’s decision means no Governor’s Cup in 2020

Analyzing the pros and cons of Louisville football not playing Kentucky in 2020.

The ACC shook up the sporting landscape this week, when they became the first power five conference to announce their official schedules. Going from 12 games (eight conference, four non-conference) to 11, 10 of which will be against conference opponents, the ACC decided to not only eliminate divisions but also to bring long time independent Notre Dame into the fold. Along with the announcement of the new system came a new schedule for Louisville football. 

But that wasn’t it. The ACC also included a “plus one” game for all of its members that could be played under two stipulations against non-conference opponents. Games must either be played in the state with which the University resides OR be at home against an opponent from outside the state/region.

Following the ACC’s decision, all eyes turned to the SEC, college football’s most prolific conference. There was talk of whether the conference would follow in the ACC’s footsteps by allowing teams to play one or more games outside of the SEC.

The SEC’s final decision was that each team in the conference would be playing a ten-game, inner-conference only schedule this season, beginning in September. That led to a ton of reaction from the top college football analysts across the country, mostly shaming Greg Sankey’s decision.

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Ultimately for Louisville, this means that they won’t be facing their arch-rival for the first time since 1993. Meanwhile, the Cardinals will begrudgingly carry a two-game losing streak to the Wildcats into another offseason once this season is finally over. The last time Louisville beat UK was in Lamar Jackson’s final season, 44-17 in Lexington.

The decision by the SEC was the final nail in the coffin on the possibility of renewing the heated rivalry for the 27th straight year. Cardinal fans can only look on with mixed feelings about the ordeal.

On one hand, it kind of makes you feel like missing an important holiday, but then again we’re all pretty conditioned to the weird of 2020. Nothing seems to surprise us anymore when it comes to COVID-19 life alterations.

I, for one, was really looking forward to the match up this year. Louisville has the better team top to bottom, it was set to be a home game, and I’ve grown extremely, exhaustively tired of hearing the Kentucky fan base pontificate the last two years’ final scores and statistics on repeat.

Not to mention, not too long ago Louisville freshman wide receiver Jordan Watkins took a shot across the aisle at Kentucky’s offensive style, saying he would never sign up to block for his four years of college like Kentucky’s wideouts perceivable have been doing for a couple seasons.

I really got behind that message. It was our turn again. It was time to make things right in the world again. It was time to make Kentucky our little brother again. Maybe next year.

On the flip side, if I’m rationalizing Louisville’s chances of maximizing their full potential in the big scheme of college football, Kentucky being on the schedule didn’t really help the ease our worried minds.

The Wildcats are coming off another solid season, and they’ve been hitting the recruiting trail hard. With Clemson and Kentucky now both missing from Louisville’s schedule, the conversation has shifted from 8-4 or 9-3, to 10-2 and beyond.

Alas, we’ll need to fill that non-conference void somehow, one would think. My inkling is that the Louisville/Western Kentucky series will stay alive, as it’s been a beneficial and entertaining arrangement for both parties involved.

It makes a ton of sense to help out a school like Western Kentucky or Murray State by keeping them on the schedule in 2020, but if Louisville’s really trying to make a splash they could target schools in the Ohio Valley-ish region. Teams like Cincinnati, Memphis, and West Virginia have all been thrown around, and would put another extremely competitive game on the Cards schedule.

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One thing to keep an eye on moving forward will be where the rivalry picks back up in 2021, specifically referring to location. Kentucky was set to travel to Louisville in 2020 to play, while planning to host the Cards the following season in Lexington.

Vince Tyra spoke to local media following the ACC schedule announcement and was asked about where the rivarly with Kentucky may stand should the SEC end up cancelling non-conference games (which we now know they did) and his answer was interesting.

Tyra said “I don’t forsee any issue there,” after speaking on the plans for he and UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart to play in Louisville next year. We’ve seen Barnhart say one thing and do something completely different over the years, which honestly wouldn’t be surprising to see happen again.

COVID-19 and the pandemic has caused a major disruption in sports which you would think would lead to Kentucky just picking back up next season in Louisville. However, it would be on brand for him to say no to coming to Cardinal Stadium next season, which could ruffle some major feathers moving forward. That may not be the case and things may be normal next year, but Kentucky has been known to do things in a rather conniving way.

It’s been a weird year, and I think we’re all just itching for football, even without the drama’s greatest antagonist involved.