Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread Check: Notre Dame by 7.

—Louisville is a very respectable No. 29 in Bill Connelly’s first S&P Projections for the 2022 college football season.

—SB Nation’s Notre Dame site likes the Irish over the Cards, 75-68 tonight.

—This ... does not make me feel more confident about this evening’s contest.

Honestly, the 2012-13 Card Chronicle Least Cool Person Tournament champion stopping in to give some advice at this moment in time is almost too perfect.

—The ACC appears to be moving in the direction of eliminating divisions in football.

—Illinois-Chicago is leaving the Horizon League for the Missouri Valley, so today — less than a month before the start of the league’s postseason tournaments — the Horizon League announced that all UIC teams are banned from playing in postseason conference tournaments.

Once again, a shameful, shitty act by a conference which shows that this has always been far more about the money than the players (“student athletes”). The people running the league ought to be embarrassed, but I’m sure they’re not.

—The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton and Dana O’Neil have a college hoops discussion, and naturally, the Louisville job comes up.

Brian: As for Duke in the near- and long-term … Duke will be fine. I don’t know that Duke makes the Final Four or wins a trophy for Krzyzewski to cradle in a rocking chair. But Paolo Banchero, usually, is impossible to guard. That factor and the surrounding talent should be sufficient for two or three NCAA Tournament wins. So I trust Duke, again, to an extent. And Scheyer, I suspect, will recruit well enough as head coach that Duke remains Duke-like in the future.

As for the rest? These things go in cycles, but if I’m a pretty good coach with a level head, I’d take a hard, hard look at Louisville’s job, almost no matter where I’m employed at the moment. If it’s at all possible to take the school’s penchant for self-immolation out of the equation — and at this point, it’s kind of impressive in a way — that’s a place built for on-court success and deep NCAA Tournament runs, in a league enduring a lot of uncertainty and significant turnover. If you can pull the ship up from being half-sunk and then steady it, what an opportunity to reassert a program as a powerhouse and chase down some banners.

Clearly, other issues complicate the task. To put it mildly. But the upside is even more tantalizing than usual.

—The city of Cincinnati needs to stop worrying about what the rest of the country thinks.

—Louisville women’s basketball sophomore guard Merissah Russell is one of 19 players named to Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team that will compete at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournament in Osaka, Japan from Feb. 10-13.

—Armando Bacot was back at it again last night.

In one year, Hubert Davis has managed to turn North Carolina from generally tolerable to the most unlikable team in the ACC. Don’t listen to the people saying he’s not getting things done in Chapel Hill.

—The U of L softball team begins its 2022 season on Thursday in Boca Raton.

—Cardinal Authority highlights some defensive recruits from the 2023 class that Louisville football fans should be keeping an eye on.

—Arkansas upset No. 1 Auburn last night and Eric Musselman took off his shirt because that’s what Eric Musselman does.

—The CJ previews tonight’s game at Notre Dame.

—Rick Bozich addresses the fact that Louisville might be on the verge of its first six-game losing streak in 31 years and its first seven game losing streak since 1941.

—Last night in the ACC:

North Carolina 79, Clemson 77
Syracuse 73, Boston College 64

—Louisville Report looks at the points of emphasis for tonight’s contest between the Cards and Fighting Irish.

—Maybe the best moment of 2021.

—Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster talk about the Louisville job on the latest episode of Greer’s podcast. Goodman joins the few, but proud members of Team Steve Forbes, and also says that no one did a worse job navigating the transfer portal last offseason than U of L.

—Tonight in the ACC:

Louisville at Notre Dame (7 p.m./ESPNU)
Wake Forest at NC State (7 p.m./ACC Network)
Georgia Tech at Miami (7 p.m./ACCNx)
Pittsburgh at Florida State (9 p.m./ACC Network)

—The National College Players Association has filed unfair labor practice charges against the NCAA and Pac-12, along with UCLA and USC.

—Lamar remains the best.

—Andrej Stojakovic (Peja’s son) says Louisville remains one of the schools recruiting him the hardest.

—Former U of L assistant Sherron Moore is about to be promoted to offensive coordinator at Michigan.

—With Duke’s loss on Monday, a win over Louisville tonight would give Notre Dame sole possession of first place in the ACC.

—Red Panda will be in the house this evening.

—Here’s the official Notre Dame preview of tonight’s game.

—U of L football commit Martel Hight is now a top 500 player in the 2023 class according to 247 Sports.

—And finally, beat Notre Dame.