Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The Louisville takeover of the ACC Network is happening Sunday.

—Kenny Payne spent Thursday at the Nike EYBL event in Kansas City. Cardinal Authority talks about the players Payne was following.

—Thursday’s conference realignment madness summed up in three tweets:

Who the hell knows.

—The NCAA D-I Transformation Committee has reportedly sent schools several recommendations it will make to the D-I Board of Directors, including the creation of multiple 60-day transfer windows.

—Louisville Report looks at how former Cards in the WNBA have performed during the season’s first half.

—Jeff Greer’s latest U of L hoops newsletter talks about the inherent risk of the “KP’s got this” mentality that Louisville fans are having to take.

At some point soon, you have to think something will happen, right? Maybe something more than a Fabio Basili commitment (sorry, Fabio). Does a 2023 recruit reclassify? Does a 2023 prospect commit to join Kaleb Glenn and move Louisville’s highly-anticipated 2023 recruiting class hopes into it’s-actually-happening territory? Does a surprise late transfer pop up? Or does nothing happen for a while longer?

I don’t know. I really don’t. And I don’t think most others do, either. We were told this would be the case: You won’t know about most things until they happen or are very, very, very close to happening, i.e. Josh Jamieson and Danny Manning’s hires. People in and around the athletics department who once didn’t mind sharing little details here and there are now sworn to secrecy. Most information at this point comes from wishy-washy recruiting interviews, and that feels unreliable.

With all that in mind, you have this: The transfer portal has mostly come and gone, and Louisville missed on all its top guard targets, making the They Got This mindset a tad harder to sell, at least in the near-term. What happens if Louisville misses on DJ Wagner? (Of course, They Got This will absolutely reign supreme if the 2022-23 backcourt depth is somehow significantly addressed or — and this is the biggest fish of them all — Wagner opts for Louisville.)

So herein lies the challenge ahead for Louisville fans: Do you cash out because of cold feet? Do you hang on to belief as long as possible and hope the parlay hits? Do you just not bet? And for the folks like me trying to get a pulse on the team and how things are going, do you just keep guessing and speculating? Do you start questioning a staff that has been in place for all of, what, three and a half months? Do you do none of that and just kinda hold your cards?

These questions are only half-serious, but they make the point abundantly clear: The “We Got This” approach creates a vacuum, something that can be very dangerous after everything Louisville has been through the past seven years. I think most would agree that a good result in the end makes up for the silence-created vacuum. But folks would also agree that a bad result in the end just makes the silence-driven vacuum that much more damaging.

The bottom line is, we’re following a high-wire act blind. It’s fascinating and riveting and equal shares potentially perilous and potentially incredible. And we won’t know until we know.

—Rueben Owens is wearing Louisville gear everywhere he goes and even got a 502 tattoo, but there are still some recruiting folks who think he may end up signing with a Texas school.

—Here’s an MLB draft profile of Dalton Rushing.

—On3 has Louisville at No. 11 in its preseason ACC football power rankings.

11. Louisville

The Cardinals return electric quarterback Malik Cunningham, and he’ll be working behind a veteran offensive line that could be quite strong. Throw in a decent stable of running backs and the offense has real potential. Louisville returns a lot of experience in the back end defensively, but the unit wasn’t very good a year ago.

Only Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Duke (three teams the Cards won’t face in 2022) are ranked below U of L.

—Louisville is 50/1 to win the ACC according to the latest odds from BetOnline. Only four teams (the three above plus Syracuse) have worse odds.

—It’s match day for Racing Louisville, which hosts NY/NJ Gotham FC at 8 p.m. inside Lynn Family Stadium. Here’s a preview.

—Mark Stoops is desperate for some NIL help.

—Eight out of D1Baseball.com’s nine staff writers predict that the Cards will spend some time in Omaha next summer.

—It’s been almost universally mocked, but there are legitimate reasons to believe the “loose partnership” between the ACC and the Pac-12 might actually work.

—The big question about the partnership is whether or not it could generate enough TV dollars to make the arrangement worthwhile for either league.

—Louisville Report looks at the burning questions for each Cardinal position group as we inch closer to the start of fall camp.

—Devin Ree is officially in the house.

—Awesome to see Kianna Smith making her WNBA debut earlier this week. She talked about the experience here. She also netted her first professional points last night.

—The U of L women’s golf schedule for the 2022-23 season is out.

—Dunk DePaul forever.

—Louisville Report takes a closer look at U of L’s inside linebackers for the upcoming season.

—TNIAAM (Syracuse) previews the 2022 Cardinals.

—The ACC’s options at the moment seem to be two-fold: Merge or expand.

If the number crunching on the ACC arrangement with the Pac-12 come back underwhelming financially — and that’s the expectation — things could potentially go from collegial to predatory in a number of directions.

Here’s the question that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips must answer through the context of this potential move. The ACC already has a large amount of low-wattage inventory in football schools like Syracuse, Boston College and Duke. Why take on the Pac-12’s have-nots, too?

Would the ACC just be better off selectively poaching a few schools in major markets new to the ACC? That list could include Cincinnati, TCU, Houston, Washington, Oregon, Cal, Stanford, Arizona State, Colorado and Oklahoma State? (Only Oklahoma State has a limited market, but it has a strong program.)

This would seemingly drive more revenue via more inventory, which could open up the current ACC deal and give a decent boost to the ACC schools crying poor compared to the Big Ten and SEC. The bonus here would seemingly be an ACC Network with juiced-up inner-market rates thanks to the addition of a flurry of high-population areas. Cable plays are always tricky, just ask former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. But the combination of better inventory and more ACC Network money would seemingly go a longer way pacify the high-end ACC members who are clamoring for unequal revenue share.

Ultimately, the ACC’s binding grant of rights running congruent to the television deal that expires in 2036 is seemingly going to take ugly and aggressive legal action for schools to escape from. No one appears likely to be the first to run to the courthouse.

Could that cause eventually lead to a recalibrated ACC that helps appease the concerns of the league bell cows?

—The U of L women’s basketball staff spent day two of the open recruiting period at multiple events.

—A new episode of the Card Chronicle Podcast is (finally) out.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—Peyton Siva is the guest on the latest episode of Cardinal Authority’s podcast.

—The Courier Journal examines why U of L women’s basketball’s revenue production doesn’t match its elite on-court success.

—Just a couple pf Cardinal QBs.

—Donovan Mitchell says a speech he had to give as senior prefect in high school was more nerve-wracking than anything else he’s ever done.

—As most expected, former U of L CB commit Martel Hight has now committed to Vanderbilt.

—Trinity baseball star Korbyn Dickerson says it’s always been his dream to play for Louisville. Although Dickerson has signed with U of L, there’s still a chance he could be drafted high enough to make signing a professional deal a better option.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show wraps up the week from 3-5:30 this afternoon on 1450/96.1 The Big X. The smooth and calming Sean Moth will join me in studio. You can stream the show here.