Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 4.5.

—The CJ lays out three keys for a Cardinal win over Boston College on Saturday.

—Cardinal Authority recaps Scott Satterfield’s Monday press conference.

—The beautiful journey began Monday inside the Kueber Center.

—Sports Illustrated is rolling out its All-Decade college hoops teams. Here’s their second team and their third team.

—Louisville is now offering a three-game mini-ticket plan for the rest of the U of L football season.

—ACCSports.com has Louisville tied with Boston College and NC State for 10th in its latest league power rankings.

—ACC offensive lines have struggled so far this year, including Louisville’s.

—Random tidbit: The only six Power 5 teams that Michigan has never played in football? Clemson, Iowa State, LSU, TCU, Texas Tech and Louisville.

—U of L gives an overview of Saturday’s game against Boston College.

—Dan Wetzel makes the case that, regardless of what the NCAA says, a free-market economy would actually level the playing field in college athletics.

First off, the NCAA’s “level playing field” doesn’t actually exist. The more money schools spend, the more coaches they employ, the bigger the stadiums they build, the better recruits they get. The boosters are already buying the recruits (and that’s not even speaking to the non-NCAA compliant payments).

Consider this: In the past three years in football recruiting there have been 97 players ranked as 5-star recruits by Rivals.com. Five schools (Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and LSU) signed a combined 55 of them, leaving just 42 for the remaining 125 FBS schools. Five schools got nearly 57 percent of the best players.

The current top five teams in the weekly AP poll? No. 1. Alabama. 2. Clemson. 3. Georgia. 4. Ohio State. 5. LSU.

What a coincidence.

In this case, even if the rich schools did continue their dominance and horde the best recruits, what changes? Well, other than the money wouldn’t go to associate deputy athletic director salaries and construction contractors for unnecessarily opulent locker rooms, but, instead, directly to players and their families.

And where’s the problem there?

This actually may level the playing field. Right now Baylor, let alone Boise State, rarely beats Alabama for a recruit. By bringing everything above board, who knows? Isn’t there more money to be made being a three-year starter in a city such as Waco or Boise, where you are the undeniable star, rather than just another cog in the huge machine of the Crimson Tide or playing for USC in the crowded Los Angeles market?

Do you realize how popular Bryce Petty (Baylor) or Kellen Moore (Boise) still are in their college towns? Would they have been at Alabama? Seems like more schools, not fewer, would have a recruiting pitch.

—In related news, New York, Florida, Minnesota and now Pennsylvania are following California’s in taking the first steps towards trying to push through legislation to allow college athletes to get paid.

—It’s indescribably beautiful.

—Rick Bozich believes that the next two weeks are going to be a true indication of how much Louisville football has improved.

—NFL Draft scout Matt Miller has Mekhi Becton at No. 9 in his current offensive tackle rankings.

—Miller isn’t the only scout high on Mekhi.

—The 17th-ranked U of L men’s soccer team hosts Belmont tonight at 7. If you can’t make it out to Lynn Stadium, you can watch the match here.

—Eric Crawford lays out three reasons why California’s new NCAA compensation law might not do what you think it will.

—Cincinnati let the fans pick the field design for the Bearcats’ next home game at Nippert Stadium.

Call me old school, but I’m always going to prefer Nippert’s traditional look.

—Tickets are available for the U of L men’s basketball tip-off luncheon.

—Bobby Petrino believes Lamar Jackson will win a Super Bowl today. Also, him making these comments to TMZ are ... well they’re something.

—Boston College head coach Steve Addazio sung Louisville’s praises on Tuesday.

—Terry Rozier is cutting spots for Puma now.

I didn’t say they were good spots.

—September, 2019 was officially the hottest and driest September in the history of the city of Louisville. Tuesday was also the hottest October day in the city’s history, a record which has a chance to be broken tomorrow.

—The latest College Basketball Talk podcast breaks down NBC’s season preview, where Louisville is the preseason No. 4 team in America.

—The Cards will be sporting their Muhammad Ali-themed uniforms this weekend against Boston College.

Said uniforms are now being sold to the public.

—The U of L women’s soccer team is up to No. 16 in the latest Top Drawer Soccer rankings.

—The men’s soccer team is down to No. 24 in the new coaches poll.

—Greer is leaving and I’m not happy about it so he will receive no congratulations on his “awesome” tour of Europe in this news and notes post.

—Mike Brey and the entire Notre Dame staff reportedly visited Louisville big man target Hunter Dickinson on Monday.

—The Crunch Zone updates the status of several former Louisville baseball players in the bigs.

—Jay knows.

—For their part, the NCAA is saying it never messed with the records of eligible players to begin with, so yesterday’s news really didn’t change anything.

That’s pretty weird since Luke Hancock’s name on their official records page had an asterisk next to it before today. Maybe serve up a formal apology to Luke for having an invalid asterisk next to his name for the last two years.

Also interesting is that on the NCAA’s official list of tournament champions, Louisville remains the only school with an asterisk next to its name. This despite the fact that multiple runners-up (Memphis, Michigan, UCLA) had their tournament appearances vacated.

But hey, please keep buying our officially licensed “Louisville Cardinals: 2013 national champions” merchandise.

—Teddy rules, part 10 billion:

—Cardinal Strong answers some questions for the folks over at Sports Illustrated’s Boston College site.

—The Louisville game on Saturday is the beginning of the toughest stretch of the season for BC.

—And finally, Scott Satterfield says Louisville is expecting an extremely physical game on Saturday.