Louisville Will Not Play At Marshall In 2014

Just when you think you have a Louisville football schedule down, you do not have it down. Probably should have said "you don't" there. Would have flowed (flown?) better. Live and learn.

Anyway, U of L's move to the ACC and its subsequent landing of Notre Dame on the 2014 schedule set up a situation where the Cardinals would be playing seven road games and five at home during its first year in the conference. Obviously, that's not ideal, and so a move has been made.

The Charleston Daily Mail reports that Louisville will not play its return game at Marshall in 2014, which frees up space for U of L to add one more home contest. The folks in Huntington are confident, however, that the game between the two programs will eventually be played

Don't fret, Herd fans. Louisville isn't going to send MU athletics boss Mike Hamrick a $500,000 check to wiggle out of the home-and-home contract that was announced in 2009. Marshall won at Louisville, 17-13, in 2011 to snap a 19-game skid against teams from Bowl Championship Series leagues.

The more likely scenario, however, is that Marshall's home game on the back-end of the deal will be moved to 2015 or 2016 so that Louisville can add another home game next season and rectify the schedule imbalance.

The Herd can replace the Cards with a Football Subdivision opponent for 2014.

It'd be ideal if the Louisville game in Huntington could be pushed to 2016, so the Herd isn't hosting a Big 10 team (Purdue) and ACC team in the non-conference portion of its 2015 schedule, but the decision hasn't been finalized.

No word yet on who the replacement for Marshall will be, although with a loaded ACC schedule and games against UK, Notre Dame and Florida International already locked in, I can't imagine it will be a world-beater. Ideally, you'd like to see U of L able to continue its Keg of Nails series with Cincinnati, but this isn't an ideal world.