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Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Rollin' into Memorial Day weekend like ...

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium If you missed it, Louisville baseball fell to Clemson 5-3 this afternoon, making their road to Sunday's championship game an extremely difficult one.

I_medium Louisville checks in at No. 10 on NBC Sports' post-draft deadline top 25.

I_medium Nanu's departure means Louisville has dropped from No. 1 to No. 9 in Ken Pomeroy's early preseason rankings.

I_medium CBS continues to be way lower on Louisville than any other website covering college sports, with Gary Parrish ranking the Cards 20th in his updated top 25 (and one).

Jon Rothstein, Parrish's colleague at CBS, ranks the Cards 11th.

I_medium I hope well all look this good at 107.

I_medium The Sporting News' print college football preview apparently has Louisville ranked No. 22 and ending its season playing Washington State in the Sun Bowl.

I_medium Ole Miss has announced its self-imposed sanctions, now it's time to see what the NCAA thinks.

I_medium Kenny Chesney enjoying his time in The Ville.

Probably should have cropped out the top of that pic.

I_medium Scout looks at the biggest impact freshman in each conference for next hoops season, and says for the ACC it's former U of L recruit Dennis Smith, who wound up at NC State.

I_medium Multiple Cardinal swimmers did work at the European Championships.

I_medium If you missed the spelling bee last night, you missed the legend that is 11-year-old Nihar.

My man didn't just know how to spell all these obscure words, he recognized and was able to define like half of them. He also did the Dez Bryant celebration after hitting his final word to lock down the co-championship.

I_medium ESPN has announced that NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager, who has been publicly battling leukemia since 2014, will be honored with the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the 2016 ESPYs.

I_medium Campus Insiders' breakdown (video) of the top three quarterbacks in the ACC includes Lamar Jackson at No. 3.

I_medium Brutally flawless execution here:

I_medium Six U of L baseball players are ranked among Baseball America's top 200 prospects.

I_medium Baylor is full of sh-t.

I_medium It looks like the adidas cummerbund look is (sort of) coming back for another year on the women's side, which means we're likely to see the same look for the men.

You're not making this easy on any of us, adidas .... and we're trying here.

I_medium Jeff Greer says that Louisville fans shouldn't underestimate the significance of losing Chinanu Onuaku.

I_medium Athlon is the latest outlet to highlight Louisville as a college football playoff sleeper.

Louisville

Clemson and Florida State are projected to be playoff teams in most preseason polls, but if there's a team that could derail the Tigers or Seminoles in the ACC -€” it's Bobby Petrino's Cardinals. Louisville won six out of its last seven games last season and three of its five losses in 2015 came by seven points or less. Dynamic sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson is one of college football's rising stars and is due for a breakout year after a full offseason to work under Petrino. The Cardinals also return a host of proven skill players, and the offensive line should improve with three starters back. The defense has ranked among the ACC's best in each of the last two seasons and should be strong once again with eight returning starters. Devonte Fields and Keith Kelsey could be the best linebacker duo in the nation. If Louisville wants to challenge for a playoff bid, it should know where it stacks up by Oct. 2. The Cardinals host Florida State on Sept. 17 and travel to Clemson on Oct. 1.

I_medium Edgar Sosa is on a team called "Talladega Knights" that is looking to become eligible for "The Tournament," but to do so they need "your votes." I didn't need to put quotes on those last two words, it had just become an unbreakable habit by the end of the sentence.

I_medium Bad news from Minnesota, where B.J. Dubose has torn an ACL and will miss the entire 2016 NFL season.

I_medium More bad news from New Orleans, where Sheldon Rankins sucks at softball.

I_medium The C-J has Louisville at No. 4 in its early ACC power rankings for 2016-16. Duke, North Carolina and Virginia sit in front of the Cards.

I_medium The ACC has topped $400 million in revenue for the first time ever, making it the third-richest conference in college athletics at the moment.

The ACC reported $403 million in revenue for the 2014-15 year, according to its federal tax return, up $100 million from the previous year.

The 14 full-time football-playing schools received an average of $26.2 million -- putting the ACC third among the Power 5 conferences. Notre Dame, a member in all sports but football, received $6.2 million.

Why the increase? The added revenue includes the $31 million exit fee from Maryland and a much bigger payout from the College Football Playoff. In 2014-15, the ACC received $94.2 million in bowl payments alone. Television money accounted for $217.9 million.

Based on distributions to each program, Florida State received the highest payout at $27.6 million, while Syracuse got the lowest at nearly $24 million.

ACC commissioner John Swofford made $2.7 million, nearly $600,000 more than he made the previous year.

In addition, the league also paid its schools more than $11.6 million in championship reimbursements, which is not reflected in the payout figures.

The ACC has clearly benefited financially from expansion. In 2013-14, revenue increased $70 million with Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame in their first year as league members. So essentially, the ACC went from $232 million in revenue in 2012-13 to more than $400 million in its latest financial report. The next big target is trying to complete a long-awaited ACC Network.

The SEC and Big Ten both distributed more than $30 million to each of their programs. Both have their own television networks that provide extensive revenues.

This is why conference realignment madness never really ends.

I_medium Three Cardinal lacrosse players have been named to IWLCA All-Star Rosters.

I_medium And finally, have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend, boys and girls.

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