Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—For the moment, the ACC “absolutely intends” to play football in 2020. Who knows what the word will be in three hours.

—”Surreal” is the only word to describe the last 48 hours in the college football world.

—The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the players deserve more answers to the questions they’re now asking.

Privately, commissioners and athletic directors have summed up a spring season as a last resort. But the last resort is quickly becoming viable, and there’s little sense what it could look like. Do you play eight games? Could there be a College Football Playoff? What will happen to the NFL scouting combine, Senior Bowl and NFL draft?

There were some coaches and administrators advocating for the spring for months. And there’s a galling feeling among them that myopic thinking has prevented, at the least, a path that requires deep exploration.

“Rather than prepare for every scenario [such as the spring model], as any efficient, well-managed organization would, we collectively buried our heads in the sands of hopes and prayers,” said a high ranking official at a Power Five school. “Our reaction to the obvious deterioration of our country’s response to this virus was to solve problems by shortening seasons and shifting to conference-only models. It was all performative.

“College athletics is the only multibillion-dollar business in the world with no leadership structure or decision-making apparatus, and it’s been catastrophically exposed. I’m embarrassed to have been part of this exercise in failed leadership.”

—Montrezl Harrell is back in the NBA bubble and ready for the LA Clippers’ playoff run.

—Huge news out of Lexington today as Kenny Payne is leaving UK to join TomThibodeau’s staff with the New York Knicks. Calipari will replace Payne with former UMass head coach Bruiser Flint, who has spent the last three seasons on Archie Miller’s staff at Indiana.

Here’s hoping that poaching an IU assistant works out just as well for UK as it did for us.

—Teddy Bridgewater reacts to experiencing an earthquake in North Carolina.

—Preach.

—The Mountain West Conference won’t play fall sports in 2020. The Sun Belt and Conference USA will, although C-USA member Old Dominion will not participate.

—Cardinal Authority is out with its weekly football notebook.

—The college hoops staff over at The Athletic has a plan to make college basketball in a bubble work for 2020-21. The plan involves 357 schools in 44 regional bubbles. There would be a bubble in Louisville, but the Cards wouldn’t be playing in it.

Site: Nashville

Arena: Bridgestone Arena

Teams: Belmont, Chattanooga, Lipscomb, Louisville, Middle Tennessee State, Southeast Missouri State, UT-Martin, Vanderbilt

Quick take: Is a trip to Nashvegas not enough to appease Louisville, which has to vacate home in the name of competitive balance? Probably not, as we shan’t include Tootsie’s in the bubble. But a city and venue that have held multiple league tournaments should be able to accommodate the pod, assuming the Predators aren’t laying claim to it. We might be in a scramble otherwise. But, again, there’s one guaranteed power-conference games and there is enough mid-major quality on the men’s and women’s side to keep it interesting throughout.

—”The Boat” in Southern Indiana has officially floated on.

—The Cards are excited to be in pads for the first time this week.

—Protect Sister Jean at all costs.

—Howard Schnellenberger is recovering and “doing better” after suffering a recent fall in his Boynton, Fla. home.

—The fine folks over at The Crunch Zone are out with their latest podcast.

—Cardinal Sports Zone also has a new podcast for your ears.

—I don’t think I’ve ever missed a putt in this fashion without saying this exact same sentence.

—Big Red Louie ranks the 25 most important Louisville football players for 2020.

—Former U of L pitcher Nick Bennett has found a temporary home during the shutdown.

—Alvin Sims is the guest on the latest episode of Larry O’Bannon’s podcast.

—Kentucky has reached out to recent U of L decommit Bryce Hopkins.

—Heads up.

—Radio announcers, including the legend Paul Rogers, currently find themselves preparing for the unknown.

—One Foot Down serves up an analytics driven recap of last year’s Louisville-Notre Dame game.

—Here’s a preview of Lou City FC’s upcoming match with Sporting KC II.

—Seems like a conversation that probably should have taken place before Aug. 10.

—Three things we learned from Louisville’s opening week of fall camp.

—Donovan Mitchell has been balling out in the bubble.

—And finally, Peyton Siva has put some of his old gear up for sale.