Can Louisville Still Win The Big East Championship Outright?

With its win over Cincinnati on Monday, the Louisville Cardinals locked up a double bye into the quarterfinals of next week's Big East Tournament in New York.

As it stands, U of L still has an opportunity to win the regular season title outright and be the tournament's No. 1 seed. The Cardinals cannot be seeded any worse than third.

Here are the various BET seeding scenarios for Louisville that are still in play:

NO. 1 SEED

Because Georgetown owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with both Louisville and Marquette, the only way for the Cards to be the top overall seed in the Big East Tournament is to either win the regular season title outright or finish in a first place tie with the Golden Eagles (whom Louisville beat 70-51 back on Feb. 3).

If Georgetown loses tonight against Villanova and on Saturday against Syracuse, AND Louisville beats Notre Dame, then the Cards will earn the No. 1 seed and play the first quarterfinal game on Thursday. What Marquette does in its regular season finale against St. John's is irrelevant in this scenario.

NO. 2 SEED

If Louisville beats Notre Dame on Saturday then the Cards will head to New York as no worse than the two seed. If U of L beats the Irish AND Georgetown wins either of its two remaining games then the Cards will be the No. 2 seed behind the Hoyas. Louisville will also earn the two seed if it loses to Notre Dame, Georgetown loses both of its final two games, and Marquette loses to St. John's.

NO. 3 SEED

If Louisville loses to Notre Dame and Marquette defeats St. John's, then the Cards will be the No. 3 seed. Pretty simple.

For those looking to make travel plans or arrangements, the No. 1 seed plays its first game at noon on Thursday, the No. 2 seed at 7 p.m., and the No. 3 seed approximately 30 minutes after the 7 p.m. game. If the Cards advance to Friday's semifinal as the No. 1 seed then they will play in the 7 p.m. game, if they are the two or three seed then they will play in the game after.

I'm never going to root against an outright Big East championship, but I also wouldn't hate that night session on Thursday and late game on Friday.