LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With just under three months until the 2024 college football season, not only is preseason watch list season in full swing, but preseason poll results are also starting to be released.
One of the first major college football preseason polls released came from longtime college football expert Phil Steele, who published his preseason rankings as part of his recently released 2024 College Football Preview magazine.
The University of Louisville football program has once again entered the transfer portal this offseason after a very successful first year under head coach Jeff Brohm, which is why Steele's 2024 Power Poll (essentially a preseason poll calculated based on each team's talent and strengths) has the Cardinals highly rated in their second year under Coach Brohm, ranking them 23rd.
According to the Power Poll, the Cardinals will face a tougher schedule in 2024 than they did last year. Louisville will face four teams ranked in the Power Poll's top 25, including No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 10 Miami, No. 13 Clemson and No. 21 SMU. Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas and Penn State round out the top five overall.
That tough schedule has caused Louisville to drop a few spots in Steele's preseason Top 40, which is where Steele projects teams will finish the season, rather than where they will start, and he has the Cardinals projected to finish 32nd in the 2024 season.
As for ACC contention, Steele projects Louisville to miss another trip to Charlotte and finish as the second-best team in the conference. In fact, Steele has Louisville tied for fourth in his ACC projections for 2024 with SMU, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State. The top spot is tied with Clemson, Florida State and Miami.
That being said, I'm not completely ruling out the possibility of Louisville returning to the ACC Championship Game.
“Jeff Brohm's '22 Purdue team may not have been the best in the Big Ten West, but they avoided Ohio State and Michigan and made it to the Big Ten title game,” Steele wrote. “Last year they avoided Clemson, Florida State and (North Carolina) here and made it to the ACC title game. They have four net close wins and an SMI of -3.0 this year. They have 15 starters and will play Clemson on the road but Miami and SMU at home, and five of my PRs set them to seven ACC wins this year and put them in contention for a championship.”
Additionally, Steele selected two Louisville players to his 2024 Preseason All-American team and six Cardinals players to his Preseason All-ACC team.
The Cardinals finished the 2023 season with a 10-4 record (7-1 in the ACC) and the team's first-ever ACC Championship Game appearance. Head coach Jeff Brohm's second year is scheduled to kick off on Saturday, Aug. 31 against Austin Peay at L&N Stadium.
(Photo by Matt Stone – The Courier Journal / USA)
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