More “kickoff” games help Louisville football program

When Louisville football schedules nationally recognized season openers, they set the program up for more success.

On Wednesday afternoon, Louisville football announced that they would be participating in yet another national kickoff game a couple of years down the road.

Of course, as shown by the graphic, Louisville was already scheduled to play against Ole Miss in the 2021 Chick-Fil-A Kickoff game against Ole Miss. That game had been announced all the way back in 2017.

Now, they will be competing in the same game once again two years down the road.

Both matchups will take place in the beautiful (and new) Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia that is regularly home to the Atlanta Falcons.

The matchup against Ole Miss this year will be the first matchup between the two schools in program history. That game will take place on Sept. 4 at an undetermined time.

Meanwhile, the matchup against Georgia Tech is a rare first week inter-conference matchup between Georgia Tech and Louisville. The Yellow Jackets and Cardinals have only met twice in history including a meeting that Georgia Tech won in 2020.

The game against Georgia Tech will take place Sept. 2, 2023 and will be broadcast on either ABC or ESPN, according to a release on gocards.com.

Games like these can be massive program builders for Louisville. The opportunity to play on national television at such an early stage in the season draws a rather large audience and a chance for the Cardinals to “prove it” to the entire country.

If Louisville wins one of these matchups, they will set themselves up favorably in the recruiting realm and give themselves an opportunity to show off in one of the nation’s best recruiting hotbeds that is Atlanta, Georgia.

Both of these games are generally considered “winnable” games for the Cardinals at this point in time. While Alabama was a treat for Louisville to play in 2018, they got rocked and it set the tone for the rest of a failed season.

Setting up winnable national games against power five foes is a smart strategy for Louisville to continue utilizing in the future and it looks like they have quickly caught on to what it could do for their program with success in such games.

At the end of the day, it is just one game of a long season in 2021 and 2023. But the impact it could have for national exposure is huge. Yes, Louisville is often on television because of the ACC Network and partnering television deals with ESPN. But the opportunity to play in an exclusive game on national television the first week of the season is a huge deal that should not be understated.

In 2021 we will get another taste of what the national spotlight is like for Louisville football starting the first week of the season.