I just got a message on my phone from ESPN that Louisville and Alabama will meet in Orlando September 1, 2018 to open the season.
Louisville v Alabama
- Thread starter CardLaw
- Start date
Wow. That is a big game for Louisville to land against an opponent the caliber of Bama. Orlando has recently renovated the old Citrus Bowl Stadium. We play Ole Miss in that stadium in 2016. Should be an awesome game for the Cards and their fans.
This sends a real strong message to recruits....we are serious about football. The University of Louisville from the AD down to the Coach understand the importance of playing in big time games. It is the next step to making Louisville a national football program.
Thank you. From time to time as events dictate I may show up. But, I think my days of regularly visiting the message boards are over. This tidbit just popped up in my phone due to my subscription to the ESPN app for news concerning the Mets or Alabama so I thought I would share.
Thanks for sharing this news CardLaw. This is huge for the UofL program. Alabama is one of the best ever so getting a game against them is off the charts cool!
It sounds like you're right cycle, we picked up a DE from the state of Alabama just afterwards.
Exciting news. Playing Alabama and Auburn really shows that our program is committed to competing with the best. If anyone in the ACC was worried we were going to come into the league and coast, only focusing on basketball, they can look to these games.
Can't wait for 2018!
Can't wait for 2018!
FYI, for the younger fans, we haven't played Bama since we waxed them 34-7 in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.
Everyone knows that only happened because Alabama wasn't interested. LOL!
Opening the 2015 Season in Atlanta against Auburn...Opening the 2018 Season in Orlando against Alabama and Opening the 2019 Season at Home in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium against Notre Dame...we have come a Long Ways!!!
It doesn't seem that long ago we were playing on the cheap carpet at the Fair Grounds. Trinity/St. X probably outdrew us. Now we're beating out teams like Auburn, Alabama and Clemson for recruits, and playing those teams on the field. We have definitely come a long way!
It wasn't that long ago we were talking about making Cincinnati the permanent home opener. Playing teams like Auburn, Purdue, Alabama, and Notre Dame is much better! Great job by Jurich.
Cincinnati or Indiana...now truth be told would much rather play the Bearcats then Houston and I really feel for them being stuck in the AAC.
Beating out those teams for recruits they are slow playing for the most part. Louisville is on the right track but definitely still has a long way to go.
Can you elaborate on your reply please? And maybe what recruits you are referring to? Thanks.
It doesn't matter whether the recruits were slow played or not...very confident that Coach Petrino and his Staff can and will Coach them up
Thanks for the support! How about we tee it up with you guys to start 2016 in St. Louis??...
I certainly don't disagree with that. Those programs are typically in the upper echelons of the recruiting rankings. Your "slow played" comment seemed to indicate you felt the only reason these players committed to Louisville is because they were being slow played by bigger programs. We hear a lot of "they didn't have a commitable offer" from teams we beat out for recruits around here. I apologize if I seem a little suspicious of a comment like that.
I think some folks are reading too much into a few things.
As for the game, I think all it means is ESPN or CBS sees it as a good audience draw at a time of year when the vast majority of the games are "Big Damn School v. Little Damn School". Louisville ha been a pretty good ratings hog for a few years now. Alabama is always a good ratings draw. It makes business sense.
As for recruiting, who a given team is recruiting against is almost meaningless from what I hear. I heard an interview on radio a month or two ago with a guy from Rivals or Scouts talking about this very subject. Apparently the whole idea of who has an offer from who is pretty shoddy. He mentioned Louisville in particular (though I did not get the sense he was singling Louisville out). A school will have something like 60 or 70 offers out at any given time. None of them mean anything. A player cannot "accept" and bind the school. Schools deal out offers like candy-gone-bad. Most of them they never intend to follow with an offered letter of intent - they just want to keep the kid on the hook in case things go south and they need him. Unfortunately, there is no way I could discern we as fans could figure out what offers schools are serious about and which ones are just place holders. (Assuming you can even dignify them with that moniker.) So if a kid is reported to have an offer from school "X", take it with a grain of salt.
As for the game, I think all it means is ESPN or CBS sees it as a good audience draw at a time of year when the vast majority of the games are "Big Damn School v. Little Damn School". Louisville ha been a pretty good ratings hog for a few years now. Alabama is always a good ratings draw. It makes business sense.
As for recruiting, who a given team is recruiting against is almost meaningless from what I hear. I heard an interview on radio a month or two ago with a guy from Rivals or Scouts talking about this very subject. Apparently the whole idea of who has an offer from who is pretty shoddy. He mentioned Louisville in particular (though I did not get the sense he was singling Louisville out). A school will have something like 60 or 70 offers out at any given time. None of them mean anything. A player cannot "accept" and bind the school. Schools deal out offers like candy-gone-bad. Most of them they never intend to follow with an offered letter of intent - they just want to keep the kid on the hook in case things go south and they need him. Unfortunately, there is no way I could discern we as fans could figure out what offers schools are serious about and which ones are just place holders. (Assuming you can even dignify them with that moniker.) So if a kid is reported to have an offer from school "X", take it with a grain of salt.
Alabama hasn't played a non-conference game away from Tuscaloosa other than neutral site games in many years nor will they in the forseeable future.
Why would they? They are getting offered 4 or 5 million to play a neutral game. Why would they agree to take a home and home where they keep all of $4m for their home game and get nothing for the away game (which is how home and homes usually work). It makes financial sense to take the neutral game arrangement. College football is a business.
I don't know why. I didn't make a judgement, just restated the fact that they don't do it anymore.
Well, when you put it that way, yes, you are correct. Since Saban arrived (and mind you some of the early games were scheduled before his hiring) Alabama's OOC games away from Tuscaloosa (excluding bowls) have been:
2007 Florida State (Jacksonville, FL)
2008 Clemson (Atlanta)
2009 Virginia Tech (Atlanta)
2010 Duke (Durham, NC)
2011 Penn State (State College, PA)
2012 Michigan (Arlington, TX)
2013 Virginia Tech (Atlanta)
2014 West Virginia (Atlanta)
Upcoming they have:
2015 Wisconsin (Arlington, TX)
2016 USC (Arlington, TX)
2017 Florida State (Atlanta)
2018 Louisville (Orlando)
The reality is other than FSU in '07, none of the games materialized into much of a contest, (though Wisconsin this year should be good and USC and FSU shouldn't be bad). You never know with future schedules. For all we know UL could be the stiffest or weakest test of all of them come 2018.