Where Will The Louisville Cardinals Fall in the First CFB Playoff Poll?
By Caleb Hall
Where will the Louisville Cardinals fall in the first CFB Playoff poll?
The Louisville Cardinals are 7-1 with multiple ranked wins, and will be in a good spot when the first college football playoff poll is released tonight. They were ranked #15 in both the coaches and AP this past Sunday, after their 23-0 shutout win over #20 Duke.
The Cardinals were ranked in the CFB playoff poll last season, and that was in the last week of the season where the Cardinals were ranked #25, until they lost to Kentucky and fell out of the poll. The Cardinals have multiple top 25 wins and have played some tough teams throughout the year. The only thing holding back the Cardinals is the loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers. Louisville lost to Pitt by 17, and at 2-6 the Panthers look like an outright terrible football team. If Louisville had avoided that loss they may be looking at a top ten ranking in the poll, however for now they are looking at something a bit lower than that.
I expect the Cardinals to find themselves in the #13-#16 spot in the poll tonight. The CFB playoff poll seems to give teams more credit for what teams have done recently, so a shutout win against a former top 20 team may put the Cardinals in a favorable position.
Jeff Brohm has led the Cardinals to this position, and if they keep winning they will only move up and up in these ranking. If a few teams lose that are around the their spot in the coming weeks and they continue to win, we could be talking about a possible Louisville appearance in the college football playoff. Brohm and the Cardinals can’t get ahead of themselves however, and they need to stay focused on the “one game season” approach, as they face Virginia Tech this week.
We will see where the Cardinals fall at 7:00 PM tonight when the poll is released on ESPN.