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Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

This the face Charlie Gruber makes when she watches Mason King pin an opponent inside the five.

By Mike Rutherford

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I_medium Spread check (football): Louisville by 35.

I_medium The U of L men's soccer team will take on Wake Forest tonight at 7 p.m. in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Here's your preview.

I_medium CBS' Jerry Palm has Louisville as the No. 10 overall seed in his preseason bracketology.

I_medium NCAA.com also pegs the Cards as a 3-seed.

I_medium The House of Cards guys recap Boston College and look ahead to Wake Forest.

I_medium ESPN currently has an insider story titled "Sorry, Louisville: Why the Cardinals have no shot for a playoff spot." The actual content of the story, however, centers around the notion that Louisville's resume doesn't stack up against the other teams with a legitimate case for the fourth spot, an assessment that I think most people agree with, but also agree would change if those teams were to lose again before now and the end of the season.

After last night, I'll roll with Nate Silver when he says that Louisville still has about a 40 percent shot to crash the party if they win their last three games.

I_medium Andrea Adelson outlines the "many" problems in the way of Louisville's path to the playoff.

There is a Big Ten problem: Michigan sits at No. 3 and Ohio State at No. 5. The very real possibility exists that Ohio State upsets Michigan and wins the Big Ten, but one-loss Michigan gets in ahead of Louisville.

What if No. 7 Wisconsin (two losses) wins the Big Ten championship game over Michigan or Ohio State? Would the committee put in a one-loss Michigan or one-loss Ohio State as an at-large over the Big Ten champion? Or would Louisville end up benefiting as a team outside the conference?

There is a Pac-12 problem. Washington is undefeated, and that is a huge issue. There is no way Louisville surpasses Washington in this scenario. If Washington loses once in the regular season but wins the Pac-12 title game, do the Huskies get in over Louisville if there is only one spot up for grabs? Louisville's strength of schedule is better, but Washington would have a conference championship.

There is a potential SEC problem, too. Let's say No. 9 Auburn beats No. 1 Alabama to end the regular season, and then wins the SEC championship game. Does two-loss Auburn make it in ... along with one-loss Alabama?

I think Auburn is the only two-loss team that would have an outside shot at getting the nod over the Cards, and both the leap and sequence of events that would get them to that point seem highly unlikely.

As much fun as it is to overcomplicate things, I think Louisville's path to the playoff is relatively straightforward at this point: win out (preferably convincingly in case you wind up in a beauty pageant against 1-loss Washington or a 1-loss Michigan that got destroyed by Ohio State), have Washington lose at least once (preferably to Washington State so they don't make the Pac-12 title game), and have Ohio State lose one more time (most likely to Michigan).

I_medium The high school game of the week poll is back for this week's pick 'em challenge. It's week two of the playoffs, and the Louisville 6-A schools are doing battle for a trip to the quarterfinals.

I_medium Louisville was the top market in the country for last night's election coverage, proving once again that we live in the "Watching Big Events on TV Capital of the World."

I_medium CBS' college hoops staff picks the winners of all 32 conferences in college hoops for the upcoming season

I_medium Bullitt East star Lindsey Duvall has officially signed to play for Jeff Walz at Louisville.

I_medium Preach, Clint.

I_medium Lamar Jackson has only taken 67 4th quarter snaps this season. How ridiculous might his numbers be if he'd taken them all?

I_medium ACC.com has a new Lamar for Heisman video, although I don't think he needs a late push.

I_medium ESPN has Rick Pitino's 2017 recruiting class ranked 4th in the country.

I_medium Great news from Eric Wood.

I_medium Lamar Jackson's lead in the Heisman Trophy race is so lengthy that the AP is now dedicating entire pieces to the discussion of who is second.

I_medium One of last season's NCAA tournament's breakout stars, Yale's Makai Mason, is out for the year with a broken foot.

I_medium Louisville is No. 8 in ESPN's BPI rankings.

I_medium Keith Towbridge was less than thrilled with last night's CFP rankings.

I_medium Both of the guys who do ESPN's bowl projections have Louisville playing in the Orange Bowl.

I_medium Luke Winn's profile of Oregon's Chris Boucher is really, really good.

I_medium Every CBS hoops writer picks Louisville to finish fourth besides Matt Norlander, who continues his bizarre trend (and I really like Norlander) of valuing the Cardinals far less than seemingly every other member of the CBB media.

I_medium The U of L women's basketball team is the latest to join in on the Mannequin Challenge.

I_medium Congratulations to Cardinal futbollers (no idea if that's right) Mohamed Thiaw and Tim Kubel on being named first team All-ACC.

I_medium Due to all the team's unexpected defections, USC will be expecting a lot from former Cardinal Shaqquan Aaron this season.

I_medium Well done, young lady.

I_medium Bobby Petrino has picked up a cool $500,000 bonus because Louisville was able to hit its APR standard.

I_medium The people in Piscataway are treating the 10-year anniversary of Rutgers' upset of Louisville as a week-long holiday.

I_medium And finally, beat Evansville/Wake Forest.

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